Chinese Restaurant,
1884.
Theodore Wores (American, 1859–1939)
Oil on canvas, 32 1/2 x 22 in. Crocker Art Museum purchase made possible by Louise and Victor Graf with contributions from Simon K. Chiu, Denise and Donald Timmons, Nancy Lawrence and Gordon Klein, Linda Lawrence, Anne and Malcolm McHenry, Janet Mohle-Boetani and Mark Manasse, Marcy Friedman, Nancy and Dennis Marks, and Eleanor Matranga, 2015.1.
A native San Franciscan, Wores studied at the California School of Design and then at the Munich Royal Academy. He loved what he perceived to be exotic people and locales. Over the course of his long career, in addition to scenes of California, he depicted Japan, England, Hawaii, Samoa, and Spain.
In 1880, upon his return to San Francisco after training abroad, Wores began to sketch and paint in the city’s Chinatown. The colorful, picturesque scenes he produced of the area’s people, markets, and architecture countered perceptions held by most San Franciscans that the area was unsavory, and even unsafe, for non-Chinese visitors. He painted this work when he was just 24 years old.
