CALIFORNIA SUMMERTIME
[image at left is from back cover]
Southern California's peaceful back country near Warner's Hot
Springs is depicted on the cover by San Diego artist Maurice Braun. The life
and work of this accomplished painter of the early twentieth century is
discussed in an article in this issue of the Journal by Martin E.
Petersen, Curator of Painting at the San Diego Fine Arts Gallery.
Braun is perhaps the best known of San Diego's first
painters. Born in Hungary, he emigrated to the United States with his family in
the 1880's. Starting out in New York City as a portrait painter, Braun soon
moved to the West where he made his mark as a landscapist. In 1912 he founded
the San Diego Fine Arts Academy and in 1929 joined with ten other local artists
including Alfred Mitchell, Charles Fries and Everett Gee Jackson to from the
Contemporary Artists of San Diego. Braun reached the height of his popularity
during the 1920's.
Courtesy Mrs. W. Murray Smith
Photograph by Harry Crosby
