Euphemia Charlton Fortune (1885–1969) was an American Impressionist artist from

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. She was trained in Europe, New York and San Francisco. She painted many portraits as well as landscape views of California and European sites. In midlife she turned to

liturgical Liturgy is the customary public ritual of worship performed by a religious group. ''Liturgy'' can also be used to refer specifically to public worship by Christians. As a religious phenomenon, liturgy represents a communal response to and partic ...

design. She signed her paintings "E. Charlton Fortune," which helped conceal her gender.

Early life and education

Fortune was born in

Sausalito Sausalito (Spanish for "small willow grove") is a city in Marin County, California, United States, located southeast of Marin City, south-southeast of San Rafael, and about north of San Francisco from the Golden Gate Bridge. Sausalito's p ...

Marin County Marin County is a county located in the northwestern part of the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 262,231. Its county seat and largest city is San Rafael. Marin County is acros ...

, California, on January 15, 1885. Her father was a Scot, William Ranken Fortune, and her mother was a native of

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

, Helen Hersberg. She eschewed her given name Euphemia, and was known to friends as Effie. Having a

cleft palate A cleft lip contains an opening in the upper lip that may extend into the nose. The opening may be on one side, both sides, or in the middle. A cleft palate occurs when the palate (the roof of the mouth) contains an opening into the nose. The te ...

, as did her father, Effie resolved to never marry, lest the trait be passed on. She came from a wealthy family and was able to travel widely throughout her life. Her father developed lung disease by 1890, prompting the family to move to Southern California in 1891. The father died in 1894. In 1898 an aunt visited from Scotland and took Effie back with her, where she enrolled in St. Margaret's Convent in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

. She graduated in 1904 and went to London, where she studied at St John's Wood School of Art. In 1905, she returned to San Francisco, where she studied at the

Mark Hopkins Institute of Art San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) was a Private college, private art school, college of contemporary art in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1871, SFAI was one of the oldest art schools in the United States and the oldest west of the Mis ...

, then directed by

Arthur Frank Mathews Arthur F. Mathews (October 1, 1860 – February 19, 1945) was an American Tonalist painter who was one of the founders of the American Arts and Crafts Movement. Trained as an architect and artist, he and his wife Lucia Kleinhans Mathews had a s ...

. The

1906 San Francisco earthquake At 05:12 Pacific Standard Time on Wednesday, April 18, 1906, the coast of Northern California was struck by a major earthquake with an estimated moment magnitude of 7.9 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (''Extreme''). High-intensity sha ...

destroyed the Fortune family's home, virtually all of Effie's paintings, and the Mark Hopkins Institute of Art. The following year the family relocated to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, where she studied at the

Art Students League The Art Students League of New York is an art school at American Fine Arts Society, 215 West 57th Street in Manhattan, New York City, New York. The League has historically been known for its broad appeal to both amateurs and professional artists ...

until 1910.

Frank Vincent DuMond Frank Vincent DuMond (August 20, 1865 – February 6, 1951) was one of the most influential teacher-painters in 20th-century America. He was an illustrator and American Impressionist painter of portraits and landscapes, and a prominent teach ...

was a favorite teacher from whom she learned the importance of expressing her own individuality and the importance of light effects. From the South American

F. Luis Mora Francis Luis Mora (July 27, 1874 – June 5, 1940) was a Uruguayan-born American figural painter. Mora worked in watercolor, oils and tempera. He produced drawings in pen and ink, and graphite; and etchings and monotypes. He is known for his pain ...

she learned the skills of an illustrator. Fortune often painted at Lake George with DuMond. As she sought out further outdoor venues, she was invited by

Spencer Trask Spencer Trask (September 18, 1844 – December 31, 1909) was an American financier, philanthropist, and venture capitalist. Beginning in the 1870s, Trask began investing and supporting entrepreneurs, including Thomas Edison's invention of the ele ...

to paint at

Woodstock Woodstock Music and Art Fair, commonly referred to as Woodstock, was a music festival held during August 15–18, 1969, on Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel, New York, United States, southwest of the town of Woodstock, New York, Woodstock. ...

in the

Catskill Mountains The Catskill Mountains, also known as the Catskills, are a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Mountains, located in southeastern New York. As a cultural and geographic region, the Catskills are generally defined as those areas c ...

. She was elected women's vice president of the Art Student's League and contributed some illustrations to '' Harpers Magazine''. She also studied with

William Merritt Chase William Merritt Chase (November 1, 1849October 25, 1916) was an American painter, known as an exponent of Impressionism and as a teacher. He is also responsible for establishing the Chase School, which later would become Parsons School of Design. ...

in her last year at the Art Students League. During 1910, she traveled to Scotland, England and France. Upon visiting her alma mater in Edinburgh, she was commissioned to paint three panels of the life of Christ for St. Margaret's Convent. She also received her first professional exhibition at the Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh, exhibiting 27 paintings there in 1911.

Early career in California

In 1910, after a trip to Paris where she was exposed to modern French art, Fortune re-emerged in San Francisco. Through the help of Luis Mora, she gained a position as an illustrator for ''

Sunset Magazine ''Sunset'' is a lifestyle magazine in the United States. ''Sunset'' focuses on homes, cooking, gardening, and travel, with a focus almost exclusively on the Western United States. The magazine is published six times per year by the Sunset Publish ...

''. From 1913 through 1920, she and her mother spent summers in

Monterey Monterey (; es, Monterrey; Ohlone: ) is a city located in Monterey County on the southern edge of Monterey Bay on the U.S. state of California's Central Coast. Founded on June 3, 1770, it functioned as the capital of Alta California under both ...

. In 1914

taught a summer painting class in nearby

Carmel Carmel may refer to: * Carmel (biblical settlement), an ancient Israelite town in Judea * Mount Carmel, a coastal mountain range in Israel overlooking the Mediterranean Sea * Carmelites, a Roman Catholic mendicant religious order Carmel may also ...

; Fortune took credit for having invited him, although the collected documentary evidence shows that the artist Jennie V. Cannon and co-founder of Carmel Frank Devendorf were responsible for inviting Chase. An online facsimile of the entire text of Vol. 1 is posted on the Traditional Fine Arts Organization website (). Between 1916 and 1920 she taught private art lessons and organized outdoor painting workshops. She was also active in the San Francisco art community: She exhibited ten portraits at Vickery, Atkins and Torrey in 1913 and had solo shows at Schussler Galleries in 1914 and Helgesen Galleries in 1918. In 1915 she received silver medals at both the

Panama Pacific International Exposition Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Cost ...

and the

Panama–California Exposition The Panama–California Exposition was an exposition held in San Diego, California, between January 1, 1915, and January 1, 1917. The exposition celebrated the opening of the Panama Canal, and was meant to tout San Diego as the first United Stat ...

. In 1920 she was nominated to the

National Academy of Design The National Academy of Design is an honorary association of American artists, founded in New York City in 1825 by Samuel Morse, Asher Durand, Thomas Cole, Martin E. Thompson, Charles Cushing Wright, Ithiel Town, and others "to promote the fin ...

, sponsored by Luis Mora and William Ritschel, but she was not elected to the academy.

Europe and then back to Monterey

Fortune, continuing to travel with her mother, visited Europe from 1921 to 1927. They lived in

St Ives, Cornwall St Ives ( kw, Porth Ia, meaning "Ia of Cornwall, St Ia's cove") is a seaside town, civil parish and port in Cornwall, England. The town lies north of Penzance and west of Camborne on the coast of the Celtic Sea. In former times it was commerci ...

from 1922 to 1923, then spent time in St. Tropez and Italy. She exhibited in various European and American museums and galleries during these years, and in 1924 one of her paintings of Saint Ives Harbor received a silver medal at the Paris Salon. She was elected a member of the Society of Scottish Artists in 1922. Upon returning to California in 1927 she settled in Monterey and joined the newly formed

Carmel Art Association The Carmel Art Association (CAA) is a Not-for-profit arts organization and Art museum, gallery located in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. The CAA is Carmel's oldest gallery. It features the work of many local artists living on the Monterey Peninsu ...

. She had a solo exhibition at the Galerie des Beaux Arts in San Francisco in October 1927, which received very negative reviews from two of the most prominent art critics in the Bay Area, Junius Cravens of ''The Argonaut'' and Jehanne Salinger of ''The Argus''. However, at other venues, such as the Oakland Art Gallery, Los Angeles Art Museum and Carmel Art Association, her European paintings, which reflected a new Post-Impressionist approach, received rave reviews in the ''San Francisco Chronicle'', ''Oakland Tribune'', and ''Los Angeles Times''.

Religious art

About this time Fortune decided to focus on religious art, and in 1928 she co-established the firm of Fortune and Ryland for the purpose of making liturgical arts to adorn Roman Catholic Churches. Shortly thereafter she adopted the name Monterey Guild and accepted numerous commissions for ecclesiastical furnishings. She served as artist-in-residence at Portsmouth Priory (now Portsmouth Abbey School) in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, in 1947–48 and designed the tabernacle that now resides in the Abbey's Church of St. Gregory the Great. In 1955, she received the papal award Pro ecclesia et Pontiface for outstanding achievement in the field of liturgical art.

Legacy

A play about Fortune, "Fortune's Way, or Notes on Art for Catholics (and Others)", by Steve Hauk, premiered in California in staged readings in 2010 at the

Carmel Mission Mission San Carlos Borromeo del Río Carmelo, or Misión de San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo, first built in 1797, is one of the most authentically restored Catholic mission churches in California. Located at the mouth of Carmel Valley, Californ ...

. The play featured Teresa Del Piero in the title role and John Brady as the Bishop. {Performances followed at the Carl Cherry Center for the Arts, Carmel; the Monterey Museum of Art, the Pacific Grove Public Library and in the summer of 2011 it was performed at The Carmel Art Association. This performance is thought to be a first in the association's 84-year history. The play is set after the artist has turned to liturgical work and as she looks back at her life while giving a lecture. The full text of the play with photographs is on the Traditional Fine Arts Organization, Inc. website. Steve Hauk speaks about the life and art of artist E. Charlton Fortune. on a video for the Museum of Monterey's 100 Story Project. A Fortune painting sold at auction in April 2014 for $365,000."Hall of Flowers Makes a Fortune," Bonhams press release, 8 April 2014
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Permanent collections

Crocker Art Museum The Crocker Art Museum is the oldest art museum in the Western United States, located in Sacramento, California. Founded in 1885, the museum holds one of the premier collections of Californian art. The collection includes American works dating f ...

, Sacramento *

Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (FAMSF), comprising the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park and the Legion of Honor in Lincoln Park, is the largest public arts institution in the city of San Francisco. The permanent collection of the ...

Irvine Museum
* Monterey Museum of Art *

Oakland Museum of California The Oakland Museum of California or OMCA (formerly the Oakland Museum) is an interdisciplinary museum dedicated to the art, history, and natural science of California, located adjacent to Oak Street, 10th Street, and 11th Street in Oakland, Cali ...

Saint Mary's College Museum of Art

Gallery

File:E. Charlton Fortune, Hall of Flowers, Panama Pacific International Exposition (Bonham's auction 2014).jpeg, ''Hall of Flowers, Panama Pacific International Exposition'', 1915, oil on canvas, 12 x 16 inches (Bonhams auction April 2014) File:E. Charlton Fortune, Hatton Ranch (Monterey Museum of Art).jpg, ''Hatton Ranch'', 1920, oil on canvas, 38 x 48 inches (Monterey Museum of Art) File:EC Fortune The Señora's Garden (Bonhams auction 2013).jpeg, ''The Señora's Garden'', ca. 1918, oil on canvas, 30 x 26 inches (Bonhams auction June 2011)

References

External links

"Seven Sorrows of Mary" mural series