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Lot 1
Peter Petersen Toft(1825-1901)A View of Downieville, California in Autumn; A Sierra Gold Mine in Winter, thought to be near Downieville (a group of two) Autumn 14 x 19 5/8in; Winter 15 x 21in
17 March 2020, 13:00 PDT
Los AngelesSold for US$4,825 inc. premium
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Aaron Bastian
Director
Kathy Wong
Senior Director, Fine Art
Victoria Zaks
Specialist, Head of Sale
Peter Petersen Toft (1825-1901)
A View of Downieville, California in Autumn; A Sierra Gold Mine in Winter, thought to be near Downieville (a group of two)
signed 'P. Toft' (lower center and lower left, respectively)
both watercolor on paper laid down to board
Autumn 14 x 19 5/8in; Winter 15 x 21in
Painted circa 1856 and 1853, respectively.
signed 'P. Toft' (lower center and lower left, respectively)
both watercolor on paper laid down to board
Autumn 14 x 19 5/8in; Winter 15 x 21in
Painted circa 1856 and 1853, respectively.
Footnotes
Provenance
The artist.
John McKay (1832-1890), Aberdeen, Scotland, and Downieville, California, gift from the above.
Thence by family descent to the present owner, California.
Downieville was a boomtown during the California Gold Rush of 1848 to 1855. It was named for Major William Downie (1819-1893), a sailor from Glasgow, Scotland. Downie led an expedition of nine miners, mostly African-American, from San Francisco to the remote North Fork of the Yuba River, where they successfully found gold in the fall of 1849.
The Danish artist and sailor Peter Toft first arrived in San Francisco aboard the U.S.S Ohio in the Spring of 1850 under U.S. Navy Commodore Thomas ap Catesby Jones. While relatively little is known about his time in California, he was remembered as a 'miner, a painter, draughtsman, writer for newspaper, magazines, theatres, etc., a traveler and naturalist; ever industrious, obliging and amiable.' 1
Like Downie and Toft, John McKay was also a sailor who arrived in San Francisco from abroad to seek his fortune in the Gold Rush. He was born in Aberdeen, Scotland in 1832, and began gold mining in the Sierras in 1851. According to his descendants, the works were given by the artist to McKay but the circumstances of the friendship and gift are unknown. By 1857, McKay had settled in Downieville and Toft traveled throughout the Pacific Northwest until 1866, returning to Denmark in 1867.
The autumn view depicts a bird's-eye view of the town of Downieville at the confluence of the North Yuba and Downie Rivers. The Durgan Bridge and Durgan Flat area may be seen in the foreground with the imposing courthouse at right. In the midground at center right is the Methodist church, identifiable by its steeple and windowless facade. Construction of the church began in 1853 and was not completed until 1856. The road before the church is the present-day Highway 49 which leads downtown over the Jersey Bridge.
The winter view depicts an unidentified Sierra gold mine, thought to be near Downieville and in production by 1853.
1 T.A. Barry and B.A. Patten, Men and Memories of San Francisco in the 'Spring of '50', San Francisco, A.L. Bancroft & Company, 1873, p. 185.
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