Scenes of California
ClassificationsPaintings
Date1932
Made AtSanta Ana, California, United States, North America
MediumMural painting on ceiling
Credit LineBowers Museum Collection
Object number1932.2.1
DescriptionThis mural, painted on the ceiling of the second floor gallery in Bowers Museum's Historic Wing, is a panorama of California history. Spanish padres meet with Native Americans in one panel while a cowboy shies away from a charging grizzly bear in another. The wide panel near the stage shows a wagon train of pioneers crossing the dusty expanse of desert en route to the promised land of California. At the other end of the room, miners celebrate the discovery of nuggets of gold, a joyous scene set before the majestic Sierra Nevada.In among the gold miners appears the name of the artist, Martin Syvertsen. Born in Norway in 1874, Syvertsen was trained as a mural decorator in Europe. He arrived in San Francisco by boat around the turn of the last century and worked for architectural and design firms, eventually winning a mural commission for the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition. Syversten moved to Southern California after World War I, and remained here until his death in 1947.
Made during the Great Depression, many features of the Bowers Museum's historic wing were made with economic considerations. Though the grandeur of the second floor ceiling mural was in no way affected by a lack of funding, the head muralist’s assistant, Carl Schabell, later claimed that he and Martin Syvertsen were only ever paid a fraction of what they were originally offered by the city of Santa Ana.
On View
On view
c. 1893
Early 20th Century
Early 20th Century
c. 1927
Early 20th Century
