San Francisco as it was in 1849: Rare view from Montgomery Street to Telegraph Hill.

Born in London, George Henry Burgess studied at the Somerset House School of Design before emigrating at the age of eighteen to California with his brothers during the Great Gold Rush. Turning his hands to a variety of jobs, Burgess also captured scenes and landscapes in California and beyond, even travelling to Hawaii on several occasions. Eventually he settled in San Francisco establishing himself as one of its first portraitists and later co-founded of the San Francisco Art Association, predecessor of the Museum of Modern Art.

Burgess’s most famous work San Francisco, July 1849 was compiled from numerous sketches to create the monumental work some twelve feet by five feet and completed in the late 1880’s. Burgess exhibited his painting at the State Fair in 1892 and again at the San Francisco Fair in 1894 from which time he issued chromolithographs printed by Henry Croker, who had developed one the most advanced printing presses in the country.