Item #AT-0137 "California Coast" signed Richard Kruger (1880

Born in Germany to American parents, Richard Kruger studied there to become a physician, but changing his mind, became a painting student of Richard Tuettner. Seeking adventure, he emigrated at age 20 to New York City and from there, on foot, he headed West. His primary interest was landscape painting, and going through the desert of Arizona and southeastern California, he did much sketching of the desert.

He later returned to Arizona for more painting subjects, which included scenes of the Grand Canyon. His paintings of the Canyon and the Santa Cruz Sand Dunes are in the Santa Fe Railroad Collection. Of his work, Edan Hughes wrote: "His paintings have a romantic, Old World quality to them. Often working at sunrise or sunset, his subjects include desert, marines, coastals, landscapes, the Golden Gate and scenes around the San Francisco Bay Area." (646)

In 1907, he arrived in Los Angeles, and in 1918 moved to San Francisco, and established a studio on Stockton Str