Sometimes it takes a granddaughter to lift an artist from obscurity.
In an exhaustive new book, San Rafael resident Bonnie Portnoy reintroduces Tilden Daken, an artist who was wildly famous a century ago, then forgotten.
Released this month, “The Man Beneath the Paint: California Impressionist Tilden Daken” (Jack Bacon & Co., 372 pages, $50) is a comprehensive biography with 240 illustrations, including paintings and historic photographs.
Daken’s sensuous paintings of California, some in collections of California museums, depict landscapes that no longer exist. In the 1920s, when he was most active, the average person did not have access to such lush terrains. In a way, he was a conservation pioneer.
“His works are a foretaste of early California landscapes that have changed over the last century. What he captures are what I consider time capsules. Many of the landscapes he painted are not there anymore. If he were to come back to life, he would be horrified,” says Portnoy, who will speak about the book at events in Ross and Corte Madera in May.
“Tilden Daken lived during a golden age when artists, writers and scientists championed the protection of landscapes that today are precious national state and regional parks,” California Department of Parks and Recreation Director Armando Quintero comments on jacket of the new book.
The artist’s works also are the subject of “Tilden Daken: The Art of Adventure,” an exhibition organized by the Museum of Sonoma County opening this week at Jack London State Historic Park in Glen Ellen and on view through June 23.
Portnoy researched California history to provide a backdrop to her grandfather’s career, which spanned from the Gold Rush to the 1906 San Francisco earthquake to the Great Depression.
Daken (1876-1935), who embarked on expeditions, is best known for his work in Sonoma County, especially Glen Ellen. He trekked and painted public lands in California and the Pacific Northwest.
Portnoy remembers her mother telling her, “My father was famous,” and prodding her to write a book about Daken when she was growing up.
It wasn’t until 1999, when Portnoy sauntered into a library to check Daken out, that she began to understand his impact and notoriety.
After creating the website tildendaken.com in 2012, collectors, museums and galleries worldwide began asking about his work. That gave Portnoy the impetus to research the grandfather she never knew, the man who painted the Valley of the Moon, as Native Americans called Sonoma County.
Daken is considered one of California’s early impressionists, although his earliest works are dark and dusky. His beautiful paintings emphasize the play of light upon trees, mountains and water, those features seemingly popping out of the canvas. He painted dreamy clouds and dusky lavenders and works completely in red that captivate.
Tilden Daken painted nature areas and redwoods in California and the Pacific Northwest in the early 20th century. (Courtesy Bonnie Portnoy)
Daken’s redwoods are of note. Armstrong Grove, about two miles from Guerneville, was one of Tilden’s favorite sketching grounds, Portnoy writes.
Some of the tallest and oldest coast redwoods are in today’s Armstrong Redwoods Natural Reserve, which was acquired by California State Parks in 1934. The area previously was owned by Col. James Armstrong, a 19th century businessman and conservationist.
Daken, a tireless, restless and adventurous man, also was embroiled in high jinks. Portnoy describes how, in 1901, quitting goldmining, he hitched a ride on a freight train to establish himself as an artist in San Francisco: “In Reno, Tilden, weary and hungry, leapt from the freight and climbed atop the nearest barn loft in the railyard. There he encountered a man stretched out in the hay writing in his notebook. Thus begins the story of how Tilden Daken first met Jack London atop a haystack.”
Living in Mexico in 1914-15, as a supporter Pancho Villa during the Mexican Revolution, Daken was shot three times and held as prisoner of war.
Twice he attempted to build an art institute, but neither venture was successful.
In his heyday in the 1920s, he was a darling of Hollywood gossip columnists. He lived with singer and vaudevillian Sophie Tucker.
With her new book, Portnoy clearly has succeeded in her mission to revive appreciation for the grandfather she never knew.
Bonnie Portnoy appears at 11 a.m. May 2 at the Ross Historical Society, Marin Art and Garden Center, 30 Sir Francis Drake Blvd., Ross; and 2 p.m. May 11 at Book Passage, 51 Tamal Vista Blvd., Corte Madera.
“Tilden Daken: The Art of Adventure,” an exhibition organized by the Museum of Sonoma County, runs April 19 to June 23 at Jack London State Historic Park, 2400 London Ranch Road, Glen Ellen. Admission is free after $10 vehicle entry fee; visit jacklondonpark.com.