The discovery of gold in California in 1848 lured thousands of fortune seekers from around the world to the far West, and a cosmopolitan artistic community soon developed in San Francisco. The German immigrant Charles Christian Nahl joined the rush. When his search for gold proved unsuccessful, Nahl staked his fortunes on his artistic skills. He became the state’s first major artist as well as the leading pictorial historian of early California, celebrating its Spanish heritage in his images of vaqueros, the Hispanic forerunners of the American cowboy.
In the mid-to-late 1800s paintings and lithographs of California’s diverse landscapes gained popularity in the state and across the country. Artists like Thomas Hill and William Keith were well-known during their lifetimes. They painted places like the Sierra Nevada Mountains that helped highlight the beauty of California, and helped encourage tourism to and conservation of those areas.
