Through April 17, 2022 | de Young Museum | San Francisco, CA

An Ancient Presence

An exhibition at the de Young Museum in San Francisco examines a masterpiece from French painter Jules Tavernier.

Jules Tavernier (1844-1889) was born in France and had exhibited in the Paris Salon by the time he was 20 years old. He left for the United States in the 1870s to work as an illustrator for Harper’s Weekly which sent him on assignment to San Francisco in 1874. He was commissioned by the city’s leading banker, Tiburcio Parrott, to paint a ceremonial dance of the Elem Pomo known as mfom Xe, or “the people’s dance,” as a gift for his eventual Parisian business partner, Baron Edmond de Rothschild.Jules Tavernier (1844-1889), Dance in a Subterranean Roundhouse at Clear Lake, California, 1878, oil on canvas, 48 x 72¼”. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Marguerite and Frank A. Cosgrove Jr. Fund, 2016 (2016.135). Image provided courtesy of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.

Tavernier worked for two years on what would become his masterpiece, the 4-by-6-foot Dance in a Subterranean Roundhouse at Clear Lake, California (1878). The painting depicts nearly 100 figures, including Pomo dancers, musicians and artists on the land they had occupied for thousands of years. Tavernier, fascinated by the architecture, shows the opening in the roof that allows the smoke from a fire to escape as well as a shaft of sunlight to enter the roundhouse. It also illuminates not only the dance but also the elaborate shell and bead jewelry of the women lined up behind the dancers.

Elizabeth Kornhauser, Alice Pratt Brown Curator of American Paintings and Sculpture at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, writes, “With brilliant technical finesse, he renders the dimly lit interior using highly controlled tonal variation and flashes of color to enliven the scene. Upon its completion, Parrott presented the painting to Rothschild, where it remained in his family until its arrival at the Met. With the addition of this work, a new narrative is introduced—the ancient presence of the Native American on the land is disrupted by the settlers’ belief in their right to ownership of that land.”Unknown Yokayo Pomo Artist, Carrying Basket, ca. 1890-1910, sedge root, redbud shoots, willow shoots, oak or wild grape vine, 20 x 18”. Gift of Charles and Valerie Diker, 2016 (2016.738.1). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY, U.S.A. Image provided courtesy of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.

The painting is the centerpiece of the exhibition Jules Tavernier and the Elem Pomo, organized by the Met and the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, de Young Museum. It closed at the Met in November 2021 and will be shown at the de Young through April 17, 2022. The exhibition is presented in collaboration with Elem Pomo cultural leader and regalia maker Robert Joseph Geary and Dry Creek Pomo/Bodega Miwok scholar Sherrie Smith-Ferri.Jules Tavernier (1844-1889), Sunrise over Diamond Head, 1888, oil on canvas, 11¾ x 17¾”. Collection of the Honolulu Museum of Art. Gift of Frances Damon Holt in memory of John Dominis Holt, 2001 (9500.1). Image provided courtesy of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.

The museums explain, “The exhibition brings together approximately 60 works by a range of artists—paintings, prints, watercolors, and photographs—to tell the story of Tavernier’s travels through Nebraska, Wyoming, California, and the Hawaiian Islands, incorporating a multiplicity of voices and perspectives, including those of Pomo cultural leaders and curators...Major paintings by Tavernier will be shown alongside examples of 19th- to 21st-century Pomo basketry and regalia, including works by living weaver Clint McKay (Dry Creek Pomo/Wappo/Wintun), to celebrate the resiliency of Indigenous Pomo peoples and highlight their continued cultural presence today.”Jules Tavernier (1844-1889), Artist’s Reverie, Dreams at Twilight, 1876, oil on canvas, 24 x 50”. Collection of Dr. Oscar and Trudy Lemer, photograph courtesy of the Capitol Art Program. Image provided courtesy of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.

Parrott and Rothschild’s Sulphur Bank Mine is now California’s largest open pit mercury mine on the shores of Clear Lake. It contaminated the land and the water with mercury and arsenic and was designated a Superfund Site by the Environmental Protection Agency to enable federal funds to be used for its cleanup.

The Elem are basket makers who rely on the native plants that grow around the lake. A Carrying Basket, circa 1890 to 1910, included in the exhibition, is made of Sedge root, redbud shoots, willow shoots, oak or wild grape vine.

Despite the environmental and cultural impact of mining and the loss of thousands of acres of land, the Elem Pomo continue their traditional sacred dances. As Robert Joseph Geary says, “We live in today’s society. We’re not something of the past. We’re here today.” —

Jules Tavernier and the Elem Pomo
Through April 17, 2022
de Young Museum, 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive, San Francisco, CA 94118
(415) 750-3600, deyoung.famsf.org