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Chapter ThreeMunich, Portraits,Late Period LandscapesBy the end of the 1870s, art patronage in San Franciscohad shrunk, and artists were hard-pressed to make aliving. Also, as noted before, landscape art, especiallygrandiose mountain scenes in the Hudson River Schoolstyle, were increasingly seen as outdated relics of thepast. William Keith was aware of these circumstances anddecided that he needed to expand his repertoire in orderto survive. There always would be a market for portraits.San Francisco native, Theodore Wores, a young artist whohad returned from studying in Munich, rented a studionext to Keith’s in the Mercantile Library Building, andfilled Keith’s ear full of stories of Munich. Keith decided togo there to learn figure painting. 224In September of 1883, the Keiths traveled to New York andthen to Connecticut and the Berkshires in Massachusettsbefore going to Washington, D.C. At the Corcoran Gallery,Keith found little to admire among the American paintingson display, dismissing Kensett as showing “a great deal oflabor thrown away,” Church as “mock heroic” and Bierstadtas “theatrical and false.” 225 The Hudson River Schoolstars no longer commanded respect. Later on in the trip inParis, Keith signaled his allegiance to the Barbizon School,praising Jules Dupré’s landscapes as “so soft and yet sostrong” and dismissing the academic style of Jean-LeonGérome as “cold, hard and finicky.” 226224 Letter from William Keith to Joseph Worcester dated Sept. 21, [1884],letter 49, p. 121, in KM, “Europe Letters.” See footnote no. 12.225 BFC, p. 116, and William Keith letter to Joseph Worcester quotedin BFC, p. 140.226 William Keith letter to Joseph Worcester quoted in BFC, p. 141.Photograph of William Keith. Collection of the Hearst Art Gallery, SaintMary’s College of California. Gift of Mrs. Mary McHenry Keith.54