Erwin Manheim

This Bolinas scene depicts the iconic Calvary Presbyterian Church at the corner of Brighton Ave and Wharf Road in Bolinas. The church was originally built across from the Bolinas-Stinson School in 1877 and moved to its present site in 1898 and continues to have an active congregation.

Long time resident of Bolinas and an established artist, Erwin Manheim was born in Poland and immigrated to the U.S. through Ellis Island with his family in 1908. He grew up in New York City and studied portrait painting at Art Students League with George Luks of the Ashcan School of painters. In 1928, Manheim moved with his family to Santa Cruz, California where he worked for the WPA and painted on the side. Manheim and his wife Ethel moved to Bolinas in 1953 and lived here for the rest of their lives as active and popular members of the community. Manheim was renowned as a portrait artist, painting both dignitaries and local residents. He also enjoyed painting local scenes of the Bolinas Lagoon and of his community. His works won notoriety and first place awards and were exhibited with the Society of Western Artists and at the De Young Museum in San Francisco. He painted an average of eight commissioned portraits a year.