Note
Christian Siemer
(b. 1874, New Zealand – d. 1940, Los Angeles)
HUNTINGTON LIBRARY
1933, Oil on canvas, 50 x 70 inches
Jonathan Club collection
Born in New Zealand, Christian Siemer studied art in Paris and Munich and eventually settled in Los Angeles in 1906. In 1925 he received a one-year contract from the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce to paint forty-seven panoramas of Southern California to decorate the ground floor display space of the Chamber's new quarters on Twelfth Street. He continued to paint for the Chamber until his death in 1940.
The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Gardens in San Marino was founded in 1919 by Henry Huntington. The institution was recognized as a cultural jewel for the Southland even while Huntington was building its collections, and it was opened to the public in stages in the late 1920's. The Pasadena Post stated in March 3, 1934 that a painting of the Huntington Library by Siemer--which may have been this one--was made for the LACC display in Chicago.