America: Soda Springs Lodge

Max Pollak

Max Pollak was 83 years old when he did this drawing in 1969. The subject is a lodge in Soda Springs, California in winter, snow encasing the building. Soda Springs is located in Nevada County, California, 3 miles west of Donner Pass in the Sierras.

San Francisco magnates Mark Hopkins and Leland Stanford set up a resort at the place in the 1880s. It continues to be a destination for winter sports enthusiasts.

Max Pollak, painter and printmaker, was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia in 1886. He was raised in Vienna and, in 1902, he entered the Vienna Academy of Art where he studied under William Unger and Ferdinand Schmutzer. In 1912, Pollak traveled to Italy, France, and Holland to study and paint. During the First World War, he was appointed painter of the Austrian Army.

He immigrated to the United States in 1927, living for a time on the east coast where he produced a series of color aquatints of New York, Cincinnati, and Detroit. His first exhibition was at the 57th Street Art Gallery in New York and he was commissioned by Theodore Dreiser in 1929 to illustrate his book, My City. In 1938, Pollak and his wife, Friedl, moved to San Francisco, California. Pollak was inspired by his new city and its environs and produced beautiful views of San Francisco Bay Area. Later travels included trips to the Holy Land, Mexico, and Guatemala.

The Annex Galleries has a broad selection of the artist's oeuvre in various media.