Chris Jorgensen

Chris Jorgensen (October 7, 1860 – June 24, 1935), born Christian August Jorgensen, was a Norwegian-American landscape painter active in California in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. His depictions of the Yosemite Valley and other distinctive sites in California have become iconic and influenced later artists. Born in Oslo, Jorgensen’s father died when he was young and his mother moved the family to San Francisco where her brother had moved. As an adolescent, Jorgensen met Virgil Williams, who would soon become the director of the new San Francisco School of Design, who recognized talent in the young man. Through Williams, Jorgensen became connected to the burgeoning art scene in San Francisco and then toured and exhibited widely, being exposed to new artistic styles in the process. In 1881, Williams appointed Jorgensen Assistant Director of the School of Design and shortly afterwards Jorgensen married a student there, Angela Ghirardelli, heiress of the wealthy Ghirardelli chocolatier family. At the beginning of the 20th century, Jorgensen built two homes/art studios, one at Yosemite and one at Carmel-by-the-Sea, where he would spend most of his time in the coming years. In 1917, the family moved to Piedmont, near Oakland in Alameda County, to be near his wife’s family. Jorgensen has been appreciated by posterity as one of the definitive California artists of the era, and particularly for his role in popularizing the stunning natural beauty of Yosemite in visual form.