June 2026 - History Corner
- Jun 1
- 2 min read
#201 in an ongoing series about the history of the Hillside Club
Reviving a Glorious 1911 Art Show
In March 1911, plein air paintings by William Keith, Gottardo Piazzoni, Xavier Martinez, and Lorenzo Latimer—just to name a few—graced the Hillside Club’s walls in a stunning art show.
Today, hearty congratulations are due to Barry Endick for reviving that 1911 show with an equally impressive show at the Hillside Club this month—a show which would make any local museum proud. The California artists on display—including Keith, Piazzoni, Martinez, Latimer, as well as William Rice, Florence Lundborg, and many others—are many of the most important names of the late 19th and early 20th-century. The show is one weekend only, June 20-21, so don’t miss it!
I wrote about the 1911 show on its centennial in the March 2011 History Corner. The guest of honor and featured speaker that weekend was the president of Mills College, Dr. Luella Clay Carson. Her topic was “Arts and Its Relation to Life.” Carson (1856-1938) taught at Pacific University (now University of the Pacific), before becoming the first chair of the English Department at the University of Oregon in 1888. She was named president of Mills College in 1909.
Barry Endick has also arranged speakers for this weekend’s art show. On Saturday, June 20, 2026 at 1:30 p.m., cultural historian Nicholas Friend will speak about the European tradition of landscape painting, and how a group of Bay Area artists brought their own themes, subjects, and techniques to those Old World roots.
Later that afternoon, at 3:00 p.m., independent scholar Ann Harlow will discuss, with slides, notable women artists active in Berkeley between 1900 and 1920, including Laura Adams Armer, Anne Brigman, Louise Keeler, Florence Lundborg, Isabelle Percy (West), and Jennie Vennerstrom Cannon, who called Berkeley the “art capital of the West” upon arriving here in 1907.
On Sunday, June 21, 2026 at 1:30 p.m., community historian Steven Finacom explores the types and varieties of fine art available for purchase in and around Berkeley in the early decades of the 20th century, and those likely to have been customarily displayed in early Hillside homes.
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