On this day in 1542, Portuguese navigator Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo discovered—for Europeans, at least—the splendors of California.We celebrate Cabrillo day with a watercolor by artist Elmer Wachtel, an artist closely associated with California.
California Dreaming
On this day in 1542, Portuguese navigator Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo discovered—for Europeans, at least—the splendors of California.We celebrate Cabrillo day with a watercolor by artist Elmer Wachtel, an artist closely associated with California.
At the age of eighteen, Wachtel moved to San Gabriel, California. He and his wife Marion Kavanaugh, also an artist, settled in Pasadena in 1904. Wachtel was among the first professional artists to live in the Los Angeles area and supplemented his income by becoming the first violinist of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra.
Pictured: Elmer Wachtel, 1864 USA–1929 Mexico, California Spring Landscape, about 1920, watercolor, 9 3/4 x 14 1/2 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Bequest of Mrs. James S. Harlan (Adeline M. Noble Collection).