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IntroductionMore than twenty years have passed since William Keith: The Saint Mary’s College Collection was published, and the time has come to take a new lookat the career of one of the San Francisco Bay Area’s leading nineteenth-century artists. In the intervening years, some new paintings have come tolight and more scrutiny has been given to the artist’s relationship with two of his most influential friends, John Muir and Rev. Joseph Worcester.Muir was the cheerleader for the paintings of Keith’s early maturity that depict nature’s grandeur, and Worcester helped Keith find a new aestheticin his later, more subjective exploration of spiritual values underlying natural appearances.In 1988, disappointment was expressed at the absence of a Keith exhibition organized by a major museum, and sadly, twenty- three years later, westill await such an event. As this is written, however, several Keith paintings are on display in the American galleries of San Francisco’s de YoungMuseum, which was not the case in 1988, and appreciation for mainstream American landscapes of the late nineteenth century has gathered steamover the last twenty years. It is only a matter of time before Keith comes into his own.As was noted in the first book, Californians are sensitive to the fact that they live far from the cultural mainstream, which leads them to overprotectthemselves from the charge of provincialism. Californians think of themselves as citizens of the world, but an unfortunate byproduct of that attitudeis the neglect of significant homegrown talent, itself a form of provincialism. This question is worth raising at the beginning of an essay on Keith,because the artist himself was victimized by this provincial disdain for local culture. “When a great man is wanted,” he wrote in 1895, “Californialooks eastward for him… California has lost the faculty of seeing the wealth at her own door, even as the East long ago began to look still furthereast for its wants in arts and literature…” And yet Keith himself was constantly looking—and traveling—eastwards, not only to New York, butalso to the art centers of Europe. He was eager for his paintings to stay abreast of art fashions. The various changes seen in his work, particularlythe shift from a topographical to a subjective emphasis in landscape, were in conformity with general art trends of the period. The same transitioncan be seen in the works of Keith’s friend, George Inness, and in the changing styles of other leading artists of the period like Homer Dodge Martinand A.H. Wyant. Throughout his career, Keith was influenced by the strong art personalities of his environment—in the early days by San Francisco’s leading paintersof the 1860s, Charles Nahl and Frederick Butman and paintings in the Hudson River School style by Albert Bierstadt. After his first trip to Europe,Keith injected elements of the Barbizon aesthetic into Hudson River School subjects, like sublime mountain scenes, creating an original and distinctivehybrid style. As mountains faded from popularity along with the artists who painted them, Keith focused his attention on more humble andgeneric or “subjective” scenes—peacefully grazing cattle surrounded by California live oaks that resembled the oaks of the Forest of Fontainebleau.Both cows and oaks, seen in the gloom of early evening, were the stock-in-trade of the Barbizon painters. In the 1880s and 1890s, landscapes in theBarbizon style were at their peak of popularity in America. All through his career, both in his mountain scenes and subjective paintings, Keith hada genius for evoking an emotional response from his audience through the manipulation of light. Nineteenth-century critics often praised his worksfor being “poetic,” an adjective that meant “emotionally appealing” when applied to paintings. Many of us today, in a vastly different and moresecular cultural context, continue to be moved by his vision of nature. His paintings have passed the test of time. William Keith, “The Future of Art in California,” San Francisco Call, Dec. 25, 1895, p. 2.2 Compare Martin’s and Wyant’s early and late works in Fifty-eight Paintings by Homer D. Martin by Dana H. Carroll, New York, 1913; in Sixty Paintings by Alexander H. Wyant by EliotClark, New York, 1920.With a Wreath of Laurel, 1900-1911, oil on cardboard, 15 ¾ x 20 inches. Collection of the Hearst Art Gallery, Saint Mary’s College of California. Gift of Cochrane Browne, Jr. 0-154.
Chapter OneChildhood, Schooling,Career as a WoodEngraver, Early WorksWilliam Keith was born November 21, 1838, in thesmall village of Oldmeldrum, not far from Aberdeenin northeastern Scotland. His father, who hadbecome prosperous as a draper and cloth merchant,died several months before the birth, and his motherfound herself unable to cope with the new baby. Keith was raised by his maternal grandparents,named Bruce. His grandfather was a pillar of thechurch at Craigdam where they lived and was sufficientlywell off to feed elderly farmers in need ofcharity after church every Sunday. Brother Corneliuscharacterizes Grandfather Bruce as “gruff and reallystern and solemn—a typical old-time Presbyterian,”while Grandmother Bruce was a soft-hearted womanwho liked to spoil young William. Life with hisgrandparents must have been somewhat happy forthe boy, since he ran away from his mother to rejoinhis grandparents when he was brought to live withher at age eight. Many sources give 1839 as Keith’s birthday, notwithstandingthe fact that he celebrated his seventieth birthday in 1908. Brother Fidelis Cornelius, Keith: Old Master of California, NewYork, 1942 (hereafter “BFC”), p. 1. Ibid., p. 2.7 Ibid., p. 3.Anonymous, Portrait of William Keith (to my father’s friend AbeGump), n.d., photograph, 6 ¾ x 5 ⅜ inches. Collection of the HearstArt Gallery, Saint Mary’s College of California. Gift of Brother F.Cornelius Braeg, F.S.C. 95.14.
Page 1 and 2: The Comprehensive KeithThe Hundred
Page 3: ContentsPreface and Acknowledgments
Page 7 and 8: Chapter ThreeMunich, Portraits,Late
Page 9 and 10: William Keith and the Conservation
Page 11 and 12: Biographical Information on the Con
Page 13: AIndex“A Broadside of Mount Tamal

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