Artist of Old California

Charles Christian Nahl

Early Work

in

Germany, Paris, and New York

The Finding of Moses, 1836

In 1836, at the age of eighteen, Nahl painted this scene depicting the Biblical story of The Finding of Moses

[No color image available]. Nahl came from a long line of artists, first studying with his father and cousin,

then at the Art Academy in Kassel, Germany.

Portrait of a Lady, 1840

Like other artists of his era, Nahl earned good money by painting portraits of wealthy patrons

Revolution in Paris, 1848

Nahl studied in Paris to at a time when the city was convulsed in revolution. This is a sketch

Nahl made of a crowd rushing past a barricade.

A Visit to Grandpa (detail), 1850

Nahl moved to New York and made a living painting genre pictures such as this one.

To California via Panama

Nahl painted his experiences of traveling to the gold fields from the East Coast as in this

Incident on the Chagres River (1850)

Overland To California

Working in Sacramento and San Francisco, Nahl also turned the tales of overland travelers

into canvases depicting the hardships of the passage. Here, a family to the gold fields has

just lost the team that was to carry them across "The Great American Desert."

The Gold Fields

The Miners’ Camp

Another Picture of Life in a Miners’ Cabin(Note the three sources of light)

A Miner Prospecting (lithograph, 1852)

Nahl published this parable, "The Idle Miner and the Industrious Miner," in 1854. The work sums up what

Nahl felt were the two extremes of character brought out by the opportunities and pitfalls of mining for gold

in California. The accompanying poems were probably written by Alonzo Delano ("Old Block").

Text of the poem accompanying this image of the idle and industrious

miner

The industrious miner tries to help his discouraged friend.

Arising early, the industrious miner heads to the diggings…

… while his friend sleeps away after the previous night’s debauch.

The industrious miner’s continuing generosity

The industrious miner deposits his gold in the bank….

The idle miner rebuffs his friend’s attempt to get him out of the saloons and gambling

halls…

.. and eventually gambles away all his money.

Caught stealing, the idle miner flees from town.

He returns, and stabs a man in an altercation.

Chained in a cell, the idle miner goes mad.

Death of the idle miner

Symbols of the idle miner’s fate

The industrious miner, successful, returns home.

The moral of the tale

Possible Source for “The Idle and Industrious Miner” :James Northcoat, "Diligence and Dissipation," 1796

First plate of a series depicting the divergent fates of two working girls

First plate of a series depicting the divergent fates of two working girls

Northcoat: “Diligence and Dissipation,” final panel

Virtue leads to success and a happy marriage. Vice ends in disgrace and an

early grave.

Bayard Taylor on the Gold Rush and human character

The emigrants who arrive in California, very soon divide into two distinct classes. About two-thirds, or

possibly three-fourths of them are active, hopeful and industrious. They feel this singular intoxication of

society, and go to work at something, no matter what, by which they hope to thrive.

The remaining portion see everything “through a glass, darkly.” Their first bright anticipations are

unrealized; the horrid winds of San Francisco during the dry season, chill and unnerve them; or, if they go to

the placers, the severe labor and the ill success of inexperienced hands, completes their disgust. They commit a

multitude of sins in the shape of curses upon everyone who has written or spoken favorably of California.

Some of them return home without having seen the country at all and others, even if they obtain profitable

situations, labor without a will. It is no place for a slow, an over-cautious, or a desponding man. The emigrant

should be willing to work, not only at one business, but many, if need be; the grumbler or the idler had far

better stay home.

— Bayard Taylor, El Dorado: Adventures in the Path of Empire (1850)

The Vigilance Committee Certificate of 1856

In 1856, Nahl designed this certificate of membership for the San Francisco Vigilance Committee. The

graphic program shows what its members to be the essence of their city and state, and their justification

for constituting the committee to discourage crime and encourage prosperity.

The bases of California's prosperity -- mining, flanked by agriculture and shipping --

supporting industry and the arts and sciences

The eye of vigilance over the angels of justice, with a ballot box between them, drive away the serpent of

evil -- all hovering over "Fort Gunnybags," the Vigilance Committee headquarters in San Francisco

Sunday Morning in the Mines (1872)

In this work, Nahl sums up what he saw of human nature as revealed in the gold fields.

It is the Sabbath: tools of work are put aside; one man writes a letter home; two others wash and clean their

tattered clothes; another reads from the Bible to his cabin-mates.

On the left: One man smokes idly; four others race madly into camp; two crooks get ready to fleece a drunken miner of the gold

that flies from his open sack; in the back, a murderous fight has broken out at the gambler's cabin

Predators and Prey

A card game in the gambler's cabin turns violent.

The Fandango, 1873

The Fandango, detail

If you’ve never seen a fandango, here’s what it looks like:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFOcR-8M45s&index=42&list=PL06961AA1AADF1BF9

Sunday Morning in Monterey, 1874

As the years went by, Nahl realized that the old California that he first encountered during the Gold Rush was passing out of

existence. Several of his most ambitious later works attempted to capture the flavor of Spanish and Mexican California.

Detail, Sunday Morning in Monterey

Detail 2, Sunday Morning in Monterey

Sacramento Indian with Dogs, 1867

Joaquin Murieta, 1868

Years after the death of Joaquin Murietta (or Murrieta), Nahl painted this picture of the defiant revenger of his and

his countrymen's humiliations.

(See the next image for an earlier illustration of the incident)

"The Death of Murieta" -- newspaper illustration by Nahl, 1853

Wikipedia entry on murietshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joaquin_Murrieta