ALFRED R. MITCHELL (1888-1972)
San Jacinto Peak (3, 302m - 10,834 ft)
United States of America (California)
In Road to Borrego - San Jacinto mountains in summer, oil on canvas, Private collection
The mountain
The San Jacinto Peak (3, 302m - 10,834 ft) is the highest poeak of the San Jacinto Mountains (Avii Hanupach in Mojave), a mountain range, in Riverside County, east of Los Angeles southern California in the United States. The range extends for approximately 30 mi (50 km) from the San Bernardino Mountains southeast to the Santa Rosa Mountains. The San Jacinto Mountains are the northernmost of the Peninsular Ranges, which run 1,500 km (930 mi) from Southern California to the southern tip of the Baja California Peninsula.
The Coachella Valley stretches along the eastern side of the range, including the cities of Palm Springs and Rancho Mirage. San Gorgonio Pass separates the range from Mount San Gorgonio to the north. The western slope holds the community of Idyllwild. The range is the eastern boundary of the San Jacinto Valley, location of Hemet; it also marks the eastern edge of the fast-growing Inland Empire region and Greater Los Angeles as a whole. Much of the range is embraced by the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument created in 2000.
Mount San Jacinto State Park is located along the flank of San Jacinto Peak. Part of the eastern flank of the range is located within the Agua Caliente Indian Reservation. In 1990 the California Legislature created the Coachella Valley Mountains Conservancy to protect the mountains surrounding the valley.
The San Jacinto Mountains, like the neighboring San Bernardino Mountains, are a humid island above the surrounding desert and semi-desert. The range can be thought of as a sky island, as it contains numerous species of flora and fauna that cannot tolerate the triple-digit-Fahrenheit heat of the surrounding valleys. Vegetation found on the mountain flanks is strongly influenced by elevation and climate. At higher elevations, forests include Ponderosa pine, Jeffrey pine, Lodgepole pine, Incense cedar, White fir, Red fir, and deciduous oak. There is also a grove of over 150 Giant Sequoia Trees on the northeast facing slope. The sequoias (native to the Sierra Nevada Mountains) were planted by the U.S. Forest Service in the 1970s, and are now apparently healthy and producing seedlings. As in many other western U.S areas, bark beetle infestations have caused loss of some of the forest trees in recent years, especially during droughts.
The indigenous Cahuilla live in the deserts around the San Jacinto Mountains and used the range for hunting, foraging, and to escape the summer heat.
Hollywood film directors have used the mountains to shoot film scenes. In Frank Capra's 1937 film, Lost Horizon, the falls in Tahquitz Canyon was used as a scene.
Today, the range is a destination for outdoor recreation. The Pacific Crest Trail runs along the spine of the range.
The artist
Alfred R. Mitchell was an American landscape painter. Educated at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, he was the president of the San Diego Art Guild and the La Jolla Art Association. He became known as the "Dean of San Diego County artists".
Alfred R. Mitchell was born in York, Pennsylvania and moved to San Diego, California in 1908. He and studied with Maurice Braun in 1915. Mitchell won a silver medal at the 1915 Panama–California Exposition. He served in the United States Army during World War I. He enrolled at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in 1916, and won the Cresson Traveling Scholarship and the Edward Bok Philadelphia Prize to visit museums in Europe in 1920; he graduated from the academy in 1921. Mitchell was the President of the San Diego Art Guild and the co-founder of the San Diego Museum of Art. He was a co-founder of the Fine Arts Society of San Diego in 1925. He was also the founding secretary of the Associated Artists of San Diego in 1929; it later changed its name to Contemporary Artists of San Diego. Mitchell was also the founder of the Chula Vista Art Guild in Chula Vista, California in 1945. He was the co-founder and president of the La Jolla Art Association in La Jolla, California from 1951 to 1961. He exhibited his artwork at the San Diego Fine Arts Gallery from 1920 to 1927, and the La Jolla Library from 1923 to 1966.