3/100. Image is 10 1/2" x 15 1/2" on a 14" x 19" matte
Wonderfully old-timey, a conscious choice by this sophisticated artist in love with the place and its history. And here is a wonderful account from Columbia State Prk's Facebook page :
"Papeete is our town's first fire engine. It was built in Boston by Hunneman & Company in 1852, and promptly shipped to Brooklyn, New York, where it became a workhorse on the streets of the Big Apple. Three years after being manufactured, the engine was sent back to Hunneman & Co for a hardware update (bigger pump), but little engine No. 452 never lived a New York minute ever again. Back in Boston, it got a new purpose, new coat of red paint and a new name: "PAPEETE." Rumor has it that it was purchased by the Monarch of Tahiti for use in Tahiti's capital city, Pape'ete- but the jury's out on that one.
When Papeete was shipped to San Francisco in 1856, rumor has it that the crew and captain arrived in the city by the bay and promptly abandoned ship for immediate passage to the gold fields- thereby abandoning their mission to deliver the fire engine to the South Pacific. The fire engine remained in San Francisco, and featured in at least one fire in SF.
Meanwhile, in Columbia: brutal fires in 1854 and 1857 accumulated serious property damage throughout town, prompting the Columbia citizenry to reconsider their strategy on fire management. The good ladies of the town raised $1800 in an "Engine Festival," a Calico Dress ball that cost $3 for entrance, dinner and dancing (the men couldn't figure out how to raise the money). The ladies sent the men to San Francisco with hopes that they wouldn't spend it all on drinks and card games, and they resisted all temptations to successfully bring back Papeete!
Papeete became Tuolumne Engine Co. #1. Fires continued to occur, but Columbia never burnt down to near totality again, as it did in 1854 and 1857. Today Papeete can be seen in the Main Street Firehouse, next to its larger counterpart, Monumental."
Born on Nov. 9, 1906 in Richmond, Indiana, Charles Surendorf, following graduation from Ohio State University, studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and the Art Students League in New York City.
In 1935 he moved to the San Francisco Bay area and taught at Mills College. Active in the local art scene, he was director of the first San Francisco Art Festival. In 1946 he settled in the town of Columbia in the Sierra foothills. There he served as director of the short-lived Mother Lode Art School (1956) and produced works with an historic California theme.
He died of cancer in Columbia on May 28, 1979.
His paintings and prints depict the rough-and-tumble life of the old mining country in a regionalist style akin to that of Thomas Hart Benton.
Member:
California Society of Etchers; San Francisco Art Association; Mother Lode Art Association; Bay Region Art Association (Oakland).
Exhibition:
Foundation of Western Art (LA), 1936-41; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1936; SFMA, 1936, 1946; California Society of Etchers, 1938-54 (awards); Golden Gate International Exposition, 1939; De Young Museum, 1946.
Collections:
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Mills College (Oakland); Monterey Peninsula Museum; Library of Congress; Wichita Art Museum.
