This biography from the Archives of AskART:
| The following was submitted by Gretchen Mello:
As I may be the great-great granddaughter of George Tirrell, I have been doing some family research on this artist and have the following information which may or may not prove correct.
He was from Boston and arrived in San Francisco on the ship "Edward Fletcher" in 1849. He did a painting called "View of Sacramento" which I would call in the style of American Folk Art. He also had paintings displayed in the California Gold Rush Exhibition. He painted a panorama (Tirrell and Company's Panorama) which was displayed in San Francisco in 1860. He went to New Orleans and painted scenes for the Varieties Theater.
He is also listed in the Encyclopedia Brittanica as a Luminist painter and I have seen one such picture that certainly looked of this school, but I am a weekend genealogist, not an art scholar!
He is known in our family lore as something of a rogue. My Tirrell family of the 1800's seems to have many connections to San Francisco, New Orleans and Boston. I also have court documents regarding some misappropriation of investments that led to the incarceration of his partner in Charlestown Jail, Massachusetts after 1860. He seems to be a colorful character. I am still trying to verify birth and death records so that I may verify our claim (or not) in our family genealogy. Any info would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
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This biography from the Archives of AskART:
| | Born in Massachusetts in 1826. Tirrell arrived in California with the Gold Rush. He worked in San Francisco in 1860 for Dr. David G. Robinson (father of artist Charles Dormon Robinson) as a scene painter in Robinson's Theatre. (The left-over paint and canvas from this work was given to young Robinson and another art career was launched.) His panoramic California views were huge, 11x175 feet, and were exhibited in Boston and NYC during 1860-62. Tirrell continued this line of work in New Orleans in 1874-75. He died in Boston, MA on March 17, 1877. In: Yosemite Museum; Boston Museum (Sacramento). | Source:
Edan Hughes, "Artists in California, 1786-1940"
Alta, 4-24-1860 and 5-26-1860; Charles Dormon Robinson (CHS, 1966); Art of the Gold Rush; New York Historical Society's Dictionary of Artists in America (Groce, George C. and David H. Wallace); New Orleans Artists, 1718-1918. | | Nearly 20,000 biographies can be found in Artists in California 1786-1940 by Edan Hughes and is available for sale ($150). For a full book description and order information please click here. |
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