Juan B. Wandesforde, attrib.
Late 19th-Century Landscape Painting of the Calaveras Canyon Before it was Dammed by the Spring Valley Water Company, 1880s
Oil on canvas
18 x 24 inches
With affixed paper label verso.
With affixed paper label verso.
This handsome landscape painting, completed in the last quarter of the 19th-century, shows the Calaveras Canyon before it was dammed to create the Calaveras Reservoir. Calaveras Canyon is found in...
This handsome landscape painting, completed in the last quarter of the 19th-century, shows the Calaveras Canyon before it was dammed to create the Calaveras Reservoir. Calaveras Canyon is found in the Calaveras Valley, an area east of Milpitas, California, which straddles Santa Clara and Alameda Counties.
On the verso, there is a paper caption identifying the location, as well as a stenciled label from the early San Francisco art supplier Hermann Cohen (often listed in SF directories as “Herrman”). Cohen produced a number of chromolithographs stylistically-similar to this work, but we have been unable to find one that matches this scene.
Though unsigned, the painting is possibly the work of English-born American painter Juan B. Wandesforde (1817-1902), who co-founded the San Francisco Art Association in 1871. An 1881 San Francisco Examiner article notes that Wandesforde was working on a painting of Calaveras Canyon, based off of a trip he made to the area the previous summer. The description of the preliminary sketch used as the basis for his painting sounds markedly similar to the present artwork. The author writes:
“A sunset sketch of (Calaveras) canyon farther up in the hills rolling up from each side of the clear and the swift-running rivulet will make an excellent picture, and the reflex on the western slopes of the hills to the right of the creek, of the glories of the Sun which is just going down, but which can not itself be seen, will tone the canvas with rich coloring.”
Two years later, a painting titled “Calaveras Canyon, Alameda County” sold at an auction of Wandesforde’s work held at the San Francisco Art Association, which is possibly the present work.
Throughout the 19th-century, the Calaveras Valley (home to Calaveras Canyon) was primarily an agricultural region known for its production of tomatoes, hay, and strawberries. But by the 1870s, the area was eyed by the Spring Valley Water Company as a potential site for a reservoir, needed to meet San Francisco’s ever-increasing demand for drinking water.
Run by California land barons and was rife with corruption, the S.V.W.C began a campaign of strong-arming the valley’s farmers into selling their lands. In 1887, the San Francisco Examiner decried this underhanded “water grab” to gobble Oakland’s natural water supply. The paper declared, “The people of Alameda county have been suddenly awakened to the fact that the Spring Valley Water Company of San Francisco is in the habit of taking what it wants. The company wants about all the running water in the county, and it has proceeded to take it accordingly.”
Part of the Spring Valley plan was to construct a 200-foot tall dam through the Calaveras Creek (pictured in the painting), creating a lake inside of the canyon. After a delay due to the 1906 earthquake, construction began in 1913. The first dam collapsed in 1918 and a second was completed by 1925. When finished, it was the largest earth-fill dam in the world.
Older re-lining and minor restoration.
On the verso, there is a paper caption identifying the location, as well as a stenciled label from the early San Francisco art supplier Hermann Cohen (often listed in SF directories as “Herrman”). Cohen produced a number of chromolithographs stylistically-similar to this work, but we have been unable to find one that matches this scene.
Though unsigned, the painting is possibly the work of English-born American painter Juan B. Wandesforde (1817-1902), who co-founded the San Francisco Art Association in 1871. An 1881 San Francisco Examiner article notes that Wandesforde was working on a painting of Calaveras Canyon, based off of a trip he made to the area the previous summer. The description of the preliminary sketch used as the basis for his painting sounds markedly similar to the present artwork. The author writes:
“A sunset sketch of (Calaveras) canyon farther up in the hills rolling up from each side of the clear and the swift-running rivulet will make an excellent picture, and the reflex on the western slopes of the hills to the right of the creek, of the glories of the Sun which is just going down, but which can not itself be seen, will tone the canvas with rich coloring.”
Two years later, a painting titled “Calaveras Canyon, Alameda County” sold at an auction of Wandesforde’s work held at the San Francisco Art Association, which is possibly the present work.
Throughout the 19th-century, the Calaveras Valley (home to Calaveras Canyon) was primarily an agricultural region known for its production of tomatoes, hay, and strawberries. But by the 1870s, the area was eyed by the Spring Valley Water Company as a potential site for a reservoir, needed to meet San Francisco’s ever-increasing demand for drinking water.
Run by California land barons and was rife with corruption, the S.V.W.C began a campaign of strong-arming the valley’s farmers into selling their lands. In 1887, the San Francisco Examiner decried this underhanded “water grab” to gobble Oakland’s natural water supply. The paper declared, “The people of Alameda county have been suddenly awakened to the fact that the Spring Valley Water Company of San Francisco is in the habit of taking what it wants. The company wants about all the running water in the county, and it has proceeded to take it accordingly.”
Part of the Spring Valley plan was to construct a 200-foot tall dam through the Calaveras Creek (pictured in the painting), creating a lake inside of the canyon. After a delay due to the 1906 earthquake, construction began in 1913. The first dam collapsed in 1918 and a second was completed by 1925. When finished, it was the largest earth-fill dam in the world.
Older re-lining and minor restoration.