Jul 15, 2021 - Sale 2576

Sale 2576 - Lot 58

Price Realized: $ 750
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 600 - $ 800
Brown Chittenden, Alice (1859-1944)
Lone Mountain.

Circa 1910.

Oil on board depicting a cross on the mountain with a few shacks and a tent in the foreground, later frame, the board 14 x 10 1/2 in., 19 1/2 x 15 1/2 in. overall.

Brown Chittenden depicted Lone Mountain more than once in her career. We have traced a different oil on board and a watercolor with the same basic composition and elements. The temporary housing in the piece was originally set up to shelter survivors of the 1906 earthquake and stayed in place for years.

Brown Chittenden is considered the foundational San Francisco female painter of the 19th century. Her success in creating botanical paintings, portraits, landscapes, and pastels earned her gold and silver medals at various expositions. An active promoter of the rights of women, she considered herself a "New Woman." This term was used by feminists [notably Sarah Grand (1854-1943)] to describe an educated, independent person who earned her own money and exercised complete autonomy, free from male domination.