Charles Christian Nahl was a 19th century German-American artist known for his paintings depicting life in California during the Gold Rush era. Some key details: - Nahl was born in Germany and studied art there as well as in Paris before moving to New York in 1850. - In 1850, he traveled to California via Panama to paint the Gold Rush. Many of his works depicted the hardships of miners and life in mining camps. - His 1854 lithograph "The Idle Miner and the Industrious Miner" was a moral parable about the two types of miners - those who worked hard and those who squandered their time. - Nahl was also known for

1. Charles Christian Nahl
Artist of Old California

2. Early Work
in
Germany, Paris, and New York

3. The Finding of Moses, 1836
In 1836, at the age of eighteen, Nahl painted this scene depicting the Biblical story of The Finding of Moses
[No color image available]. Nahl came from a long line of artists, first studying with his father and cousin,
then at the Art Academy in Kassel, Germany.

4. Portrait of a Lady, 1840
Like other artists of his era, Nahl earned good money by painting portraits of wealthy patrons

5. Revolution in Paris, 1848
Nahl studied in Paris to at a time when the city was convulsed in revolution. This is a sketch
Nahl made of a crowd rushing past a barricade.

6. A Visit to Grandpa (detail), 1850
Nahl moved to New York and made a living painting genre pictures such as this one.

7. To California via Panama
Nahl painted his experiences of traveling to the gold fields from the East Coast as in this
Incident on the Chagres River (1850)

8. Overland To California
Working in Sacramento and San Francisco, Nahl also turned the tales of overland travelers
into canvases depicting the hardships of the passage. Here, a family to the gold fields has
just lost the team that was to carry them across "The Great American Desert."

9. The Gold Fields

10. The Miners’ Camp

11. Another Picture of Life in a Miners’ Cabin
(Note the three sources of light)

12. A Miner Prospecting (lithograph, 1852)

13. Nahl published this parable, "The Idle Miner and the Industrious Miner," in 1854. The work sums up what
Nahl felt were the two extremes of character brought out by the opportunities and pitfalls of mining for gold
in California. The accompanying poems were probably written by Alonzo Delano ("Old Block").

15. Text of the poem accompanying this image of the idle and industrious
miner

16. The industrious miner tries to help his discouraged friend.

17. Arising early, the industrious miner heads to the diggings…

18. … while his friend sleeps away after the previous night’s debauch.

19. The industrious miner’s continuing generosity

20. The industrious miner deposits his gold in the bank….

21. The idle miner rebuffs his friend’s attempt to get him out of the saloons and gambling
halls…

22. .. and eventually gambles away all his money.

23. Caught stealing, the idle miner flees from town.

24. He returns, and stabs a man in an altercation.

25. Chained in a cell, the idle miner goes mad.

26. Death of the idle miner

27. Symbols of the idle miner’s fate

28. The industrious miner, successful, returns home.

29. The moral of the tale

30. Possible Source for “The Idle and Industrious Miner” :
James Northcoat, "Diligence and Dissipation," 1796
First plate of a series depicting the divergent fates of two working girls
First plate of a series depicting the divergent fates of two working girls

31. Northcoat: “Diligence and Dissipation,” final panel
Virtue leads to success and a happy marriage. Vice ends in disgrace and an
early grave.

32. Bayard Taylor on the Gold Rush and human character
The emigrants who arrive in California, very soon divide into two distinct classes. About two-thirds, or
possibly three-fourths of them are active, hopeful and industrious. They feel this singular intoxication of
society, and go to work at something, no matter what, by which they hope to thrive.
The remaining portion see everything “through a glass, darkly.” Their first bright anticipations are
unrealized; the horrid winds of San Francisco during the dry season, chill and unnerve them; or, if they go to
the placers, the severe labor and the ill success of inexperienced hands, completes their disgust. They commit a
multitude of sins in the shape of curses upon everyone who has written or spoken favorably of California.
Some of them return home without having seen the country at all and others, even if they obtain profitable
situations, labor without a will. It is no place for a slow, an over-cautious, or a desponding man. The emigrant
should be willing to work, not only at one business, but many, if need be; the grumbler or the idler had far
better stay home.
— Bayard Taylor, El Dorado: Adventures in the Path of Empire (1850)

33. The Vigilance Committee Certificate of 1856
In 1856, Nahl designed this certificate of membership for the San Francisco Vigilance Committee. The
graphic program shows what its members to be the essence of their city and state, and their justification
for constituting the committee to discourage crime and encourage prosperity.

34. The bases of California's prosperity -- mining, flanked by agriculture and shipping --
supporting industry and the arts and sciences

35. The eye of vigilance over the angels of justice, with a ballot box between them, drive away the serpent of
evil -- all hovering over "Fort Gunnybags," the Vigilance Committee headquarters in San Francisco

36. Sunday Morning in the Mines (1872)
In this work, Nahl sums up what he saw of human nature as revealed in the gold fields.

37. It is the Sabbath: tools of work are put aside; one man writes a letter home; two others wash and clean their
tattered clothes; another reads from the Bible to his cabin-mates.

38. On the left: One man smokes idly; four others race madly into camp; two crooks get ready to fleece a drunken miner of the gold
that flies from his open sack; in the back, a murderous fight has broken out at the gambler's cabin

39. Predators and Prey

40. A card game in the gambler's cabin turns violent.

41. The Fandango, 1873

42. The Fandango, detail

43. If you’ve never seen a fandango, here’s what it looks like:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFOcR-8M45s&index=42&list=PL06961AA1AADF1BF9

44. Sunday Morning in Monterey, 1874
As the years went by, Nahl realized that the old California that he first encountered during the Gold Rush was passing out of
existence. Several of his most ambitious later works attempted to capture the flavor of Spanish and Mexican California.

45. Detail, Sunday Morning in Monterey

46. Detail 2, Sunday Morning in Monterey

47. Sacramento Indian with Dogs, 1867

48. Joaquin Murieta, 1868
Years after the death of Joaquin Murietta (or Murrieta), Nahl painted this picture of the defiant revenger of his and
his countrymen's humiliations.
(See the next image for an earlier illustration of the incident)

49. "The Death of Murieta" -- newspaper illustration by Nahl, 1853
Wikipedia entry on murietshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joaquin_Murrieta