Gallery 27A

This view of San Quentin State Prison shows California’s oldest and most notorious prison veiled behind a foggy mist. Birk’s landscape documents the transformation of California from a mythical Eden into the home of one of the nation’s largest incarcerated populations. According to Birk, the works in his Prisonation series are “based on the California landscape paintings of the 1880s, the image of California, and the romance of the West and the reality of what the West has become.”

This view of San Quentin State Prison shows California’s oldest and most notorious prison veiled behind a foggy mist. Birk’s landscape documents the transformation of California from a mythical Eden into the home of one of the nation’s largest incarcerated populations. According to Birk, the works in his Prisonation series are “based on the California landscape paintings of the 1880s, the image of California, and the romance of the West and the reality of what the West has become.”

With its crimson and golden light, this landscape is evocative of California; it may have been inspired by Keith’s excursion to Monterey the year it was painted. The painting was described in a 1912 exhibition catalogue as “a poem in pigments, one of those rare poetic fancies, a song without words such as only a masterhand and spirit can call from the spheres.” Keith considered this work one of his best, exhibiting it in the California Building at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exhibition in Chicago.

With its crimson and golden light, this landscape is evocative of California; it may have been inspired by Keith’s excursion to Monterey the year it was painted. The painting was described in a 1912 exhibition catalogue as “a poem in pigments, one of those rare poetic fancies, a song without words such as only a masterhand and spirit can call from the spheres.” Keith considered this work one of his best, exhibiting it in the California Building at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exhibition in Chicago.

This creek scene condenses brown-green foliage against its reflection on the water’s surface. With horizontal green strokes, Hunt rendered Spanish moss hanging from tree branches, suggesting the damp warmth of the Florida climate. Governor’s Creek and the St. John River were fashionable resort areas when the artist painted this scene. However, this picture includes no evidence of leisure—instead, Hunt shows two small figures rowing their boat laboriously through the smooth water.

This creek scene condenses brown-green foliage against its reflection on the water’s surface. With horizontal green strokes, Hunt rendered Spanish moss hanging from tree branches, suggesting the damp warmth of the Florida climate. Governor’s Creek and the St. John River were fashionable resort areas when the artist painted this scene. However, this picture includes no evidence of leisure—instead, Hunt shows two small figures rowing their boat laboriously through the smooth water.