728 Montgomery St: People, Events and Escapades with Donald J. Hagerty

From 1912 until 1939, Maynard Dixon maintained a studio at 728 Montgomery Street in San Francisco. In this storied Gold Rush era building he created his striking paintings and hosted an endless parade of painters, writers and others drawn to his restless intellect and glowing artwork. Many of the Nevada paintings in the exhibition emerged from this studio. It is where he developed his distinctive painting style infused by modernist concepts, anchored by his frequent trips to the West’s arid lands, particularly Nevada. This lecture will draw upon period photographs, oral histories from people who knew him, and his own writings, along with selected art.  This lecture will also touch on the studio as a place of refuge, where Dixon could escape the pressure of his tumultuous life and the onslaught of an urban America.

About Donald J. Hagerty

Donald J. Hagerty is the author of Desert Dreams: The Art and Life of Maynard Dixon, The Life of Maynard Dixon, and The Art of Maynard Dixon. Additional publications include Beyond the Visible Terrain: The Art of Ed Mell, Holding Ground: The Art of Gary Ernest Smith, Canyon de Chelly: 100 Years of Painting and Photography, and Leading the West: One Hundred Contemporary Painters and Sculptors. In addition, he has written numerous articles for Western Art Collector, Montana: The Magazine of Western History, California State Library Bulletin, and American Art Collector, among others. 

Image Credit: 

Isabel Porter Collins, Portrait of Maynard Dixon, circa 1895. California Historical Society, Photographs from the Isabel Porter Collins Collection, MSP 422