Alfred Farnsworth (1858 - 1908)

Well-known painter Alfred Farnsworth exchanged several of his watercolor paintings for room and board when he stayed in a Bolinas hotel on the edge of the Bolinas Lagoon depicted in the painting. The hotel’s owner, Sherman Smith, was the grandson of the Briones family, who originally settled Rancho Las Baulines. The painting remained in the family for almost a hundred years.

Born into an upper class family, Alfred Farnsworth was well educated, he studied engineering in Paris, but chose to be an artist. He came to San Francisco in 1892 where he worked for the San Francisco Examiner newspaper. He was good friends with artist Thaddeus Welch who lived in Steep Ravine. Later Farnsworth lived in San Anselmo, San Rafael and Stinson Beach.