The Way It Was
by Hattie Beresford
Alexander Harmer: Painter of the West
I
n Harmer’s great picture Fiesta, the dancers go round, they go round and around….* Just as Brueghel brought 16th-century Dutch peasant life to light, Alexander Harmer’s brush breathed life into the tales and lifestyle of the early Californios. Kevin Starr, former California State Historian, wrote, “Joyous, colorful, well-researched, action-packed, Harmer’s canvases of Old California filled out in visual terms the Santa Barbara legend.” La Fiesta, he says, may very well have inspired the city’s revival of fiesta pageantry in the 1920s. Alexander Francis Harmer was born in Newark, New Jersey, in 1856. One of 10 children, he was drawn to art from boyhood and sold his first painting at age 11 for $2. It was a princely sum for a young boy. Determined to head west to paint, he worked as a messenger boy at a telegraph office until he’d saved enough money to leave home. It was an interesting choice, for at that time, most budding young artists looked to Europe for training and inspiration. Harmer, however, chose to follow the footsteps of such intrepid artist chroniclers of the Far West as George Catlin, Alfred Jacob Miller, and Karl Bodmer. One Harmer biographer wrote, “He wanted to capture on canvas, scenes of the American West which were even then rapidly passing. His studies of Indian life are an invaluable record of the history of America.” Harmer was 13 years old when he arrived in Lincoln, Nebraska, in 1869. For the next two years, he alternately tried to find work in various towns and enroll in the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. Unsuccessful at every turn, in 1872 he lied about his age and enlisted in the regular Army for five years, listing his occupation as painter. He joined Company B, First U.S. Calvary, which was stationed at the
The Harmer Adobe with two-story addition on the right faced De la Guerra Plaza and stood in what is now a parking lot next to City Hall (Courtesy Santa Barbara Historical Museum)
In Moonlight, Harmer painted the romance of a festive gathering at the De la Guerra Adobe in Old California (Courtesy Santa Barbara Historical Museum) Alexander Harmer (1922) standing in front of the famous portal on the west wall of the Adobe (Courtesy Santa Barbara Historical Museum) Ms Beresford is a retired English and American history teacher of 30 years in the Santa Barbara School District. She is author of two Noticias, “El Mirasol: From Swan to Albatross” and “Santa Barbara Grocers,” for the Santa Barbara Historical Society.
Benicia Barracks, in California. After a year of saving his meager pay, he requested and received a discharge so he could return to Philadelphia to attend the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. In Pennsylvania, he still didn’t have enough money for school, but he acquired work as a photographer’s assistant and spent his free time painting and sketching on his own. Soon, a trio of influential artists recognized his talent and arranged for his acceptance into the Academy in 1874. Harmer studied under Thomas Eakins, who stressed close observaHarmer’s Studio at the Adobe with many works in progress (Courtesy Santa Barbara Historical Museum)
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tion of nature and a mathematical approach to composition. The two became great friends. In 1876, Harmer left the academy but stayed in Philadelphia to work and paint on his own. Then on September 2, 1881, he re-enlisted in the Army as a private in Troop L of the Sixth Cavalry and headed for Fort Apache, Arizona. He kept up a correspondence with Eakins, who sent him a camera to help with his studies of western landscapes, Army life, and especially the Apache.
Painting the Far West
In 1883, Harmer asked General Crook if he could join the field expedition that was following the renegade Geronimo into Old Mexico. Harmer was present when Geronimo was captured for the third, but not final, time. This expedition and others provided him with material for paintings of Native American life. Many of his illustrations began appearing in national magazines such as Harper’s Weekly, as well as in Captain John Bourke’s book The Hunt for Geronimo. In 1884, Harmer returned to Philadelphia and re-entered the academy for an additional term of study. Then, in 1885, he was invited to return to Arizona by General Crook and traveled with him and Captain Bourke throughout much of Arizona, continuing to sketch his observations. In 1885, Harmer headed to California to paint the missions, meticulously
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detailing their states of disrepair and researching old photos and documents to paint them as they were. At some point, Harmer met up Charles Fletcher Lummis, a multifaceted and eccentric genius, who had walked to California from Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1884 to take a reporter job at the Los Angeles Times. In 1889, Harmer left California for one last session at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and a year in Mexico. Upon his return in 1891, he renewed his acquaintance with Lummis, who, besides being a journalist was a photographer. He was also a historical preservationist, and to that end, he invited Harmer to join him at the Del Valle family’s Rancho Camulus, the ranch used as the setting for Helen Hunt Jackson’s famous novel, Ramona. Here, Harmer witnessed family historic re-enactments, which Lummis photographed, and here, he was introduced to the daughter of Refugio and Dominque Abadie of Santa Barbara, the beautiful and charming Felicidad.
Santa Barbara
On August 2, 1893, the Daily Independent announced that Ygnacio Ramon Del Valle of Camulos was staying at the Commercial Hotel. That afternoon, in a small ceremony attended only by family and intimate friends, Alexander and Felicidad were married at the residence of Rev. James Villa of Our Lady of Sorrows Church. 12 – 19 November 2015