Carmel Mission-Carmel-by-the Sea

Louis Christian Mullgardt

This impression of Carmel Mission is inscribed to Clint Mason, an early member of the Bohemian Club in San Francisco.

Mission San Carlos Borromes de Carmelo was the seat of the California Missions in Carmel, California and is the burial site of Father Junipero Serra. An impression of this print was exhibited in the 1915 Panama Pacific Exhibition.

After the 1906 earthquake there were very few lithography presses in San Francisco capable of printing an image this large and where Mullgardt, trained as an architect, printed this and the edition size are not known at this time, though it is assumed there were 25 or fewer. It is quite possible he worked with Joseph Pennell who had been printing large transfer lithographs with Thomas Way and had spent time in San Francisco in 1912 where he met with many printmakers in anticipation of the PPIE in 1915. Pennell had done a series of large lithographs of the Grand Canyon and Yosemite which would have impressed the printmakers of the time.

Born on Jan. 18, 1866 in Washington, MO. Mullgardt studied at Harvard and George Washington University. He worked as an architect in St Louis (1893-02) and in England before settling in San Francisco in 1905. After joining the art department of the San Francisco Chronicle, he soon became active in the local art scene and established an architecture practice.

Mullgardt was a cofounder and first president of the California Society of Etchers and former president of the San Francisco Society of Architects. During the Panama Pacific International Expositition of 1915 he was a member of the jury of awards, designed the Court of Ages, and exhibited two etchings and this lithograph. As an architect, his designs include the president's residence at Stanford University, M. H. de Young Museum, University Club in St Louis.