Description

Francis Augustus Todhunter (American, 1884 - 1963) This ink on paper of the Carmel Mission measures 27” x 23” and is signed lower left, Francis Todhunter. Todhunter is well known for his Regionalist works including etchings, lithographs, drawings and oils of the Marin County and the San Francisco Bay area. The drawing is in very good condition with no vissble defects. This ink drawing of the Carmel Mission by Todhunter is a good example of the Regionalism that he is best known and is a quintessential example of his work. CARMEL MISSION HISTORY Spain began colonization efforts in the territory in 1769, with the expedition of Gaspar de Portolá, to establish a port on the Pacific Coast to facilitate their world-trading route. After missing Vizcaino’s “Port of Monterey” founded 167 years earlier, Portolá returned to San Diego to replenish their supplies and in 1770 set off on foot in search of this port from San Diego. Portola’s boat, the San Antonio, was restocked and set sail for Monterey shortly after with Father Junípero Serra and Father Fermin Lasuén on board. The San Antonio endured a six-week journey from San Diego up the Pacific Coast where they joined Portolá and established the Presidio of Monterey. After a year at the Presidio, Fr. Serra went in search for more fertile land better suited for farming, which he found near the Carmel River. In 1771 the Carmel Mission was founded at its present location after receiving approval from the Viceroy of Spain. It was the second mission established in the territory called Alta California and was Fr. Serra’s headquarters for California’s mission system. From here, personnel and supplies would be sent throughout Alta California to establish a chain of 21 missions to begin colonization of the territory. The Carmel Mission endured times of flourish and hardship for 40 years after Serra’s passing in August 1784. The Mission continued to be the headquarters for the California Mission system for all but three of those years (1815-1818). In 1797, Father Lasuén carried out Fr. Serra’s wish and constructed the stone church we see today using stone from the nearby Santa Lucia Mountains. With a collection of books brought by Serra and the other padres, the mission was also home to what could be called California’s first library. Although it began modestly with a few dozen volumes, by 1820 it had over 2,000 books. A few of them rest in the Convento Museum Library today. Biography: Francis Todhunter was born in 1884 in San Francisco, California. He graduated from the California School of Design, later known as the San Francisco Art Institute. He began his career as a commercial artist at the San Francisco Chronicle alongside Rube Goldberg and Bud Fisher. He worked for the advertising firm McCann-Erickson until 1949. Francis Todhunter was also a well known watercolor and oil painter, exhibiting his work at the Oakland Art Gallery in 1942. Although he used Impressionist features, he was not considered a true impressionist because of his use of lines in his paintings. He resided in Mill Valley, California with his wife, Alice Serella, and their son, Norman, both painters in their own right. Francis Todhunter died in 1963 in San Francisco and his wife Alice died in 1969. His artwork can be seen at Fine Arts Museums and are also apart of m any private collections. In the mid-1920's, American art experienced a series of dramatic transformations that would reach all the way to California. Gone were the classic compositions of the plein-air painters giving way to a new generation of artists with a style of painting characterized by a move away from the traditional, toward more progressive approaches to painting. European inspired Modernism, first shown in New York in 1913 at the momentous International Exhibition of Modern Art, better known as the Armory Show, found ready converts among this new generation of artists. When compared to the plein-air style, the work of Modernist artists tends to favor overall flatter surface designs instead of portraying realistic three-dimensional effects of natural depth. The forms they create usually follow rhythmic lines that echo or complement each other. Moreover, they tend to intensify colors in larger, simpler brushstrokes and simplify forms such as houses, hills, and trees by using stylized sets of patterns. Among the artists that well represented this change to modernism was Francis Augustus Todhunter.