G.G. Park (Dutch Windmill, San Francisco)

 

John William Winkler

  1894 - 1979 (biography)

1913  

etching 

6 3/4 x 3 15/16" platemark; signed in plate, lower left 

pencil, lower center 

not stated; under 50 

signed, dated, and titled in the plate along lower edge; old ledger writing and flourish in upper left corner (reads "64") 

 

antique laid ledger paper with partial crown watermark 

 

artist 

24570 

$450.00 

A depiction of the Dutch Mill, one of two iconic windmills located in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, California. The functional mills were erected in 1903 on the windswept dunes of the northwestern edge of the city to irrigate the newly planted park. The Dutch Mill alone would pump up to 30,000 gallons of water per hour. While funtionally they were replaced by electric pumps a decade later, the city chose to keep the windmills as they had become landmarks. They were refurbished in 1981, and remain beloved sentinels of the world-renowned park.

Here, Winkler captures not just the structure itself but the atmosphere of San Francisco, the famous fog rolling through the sky and the cypress, dwarfed below the mill, bending in the wind.