Beach Nocturne,

ca. 1900–10

Even before settling in the California coastal town of Carmel in 1911, Bavarian-born William Ritschel found his métier painting scenes of the sea, usually focused, as here, on the littoral zone where land and water meet. While working as a sailor during his youth, Ritschel began sketching marine subjects, continuing to do so in Holland, Brittany, and, following his emigration to New York in 1895, in Maine, along the Eastern Seaboard, and principally in California. Beach Nocturne depicts the harvesting of kelp, a type of seaweed burned to produce soda ash and used in the production of soap, glass, and other products. Based on comparison with other Ritschel compositions, it was likely painted in Holland, where the artist worked for much of the first decade of the twentieth century (the canvas is dated at lower left, but indecipherably). The painting is surrounded by a handcrafted frame from the Carrig-Rohane shop, established by artists Hermann Dudley Murphy and Charles Prendergast to produce elegantly simplifi ed designs inspired by Aesthetic Movement and Arts and Crafts principles.