By Jean Kalisch, a Cubist “Nob Hill” Becomes San Francisco’s “Oz”

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San Francisco’s elegant Nob Hill caught the eye of Japanese-born, Californian painter Jean Kalisch ((1912-1995). In this atmospheric cityscape, the … Read more San Francisco’s elegant Nob Hill caught the eye of Japanese-born, Californian painter Jean Kalisch ((1912-1995). In this atmospheric cityscape, the artist has rendered the famously exclusive area through the prism of Cubism, presenting multiple facades done in glistening greens, almost suggesting Dorothy’s first glimpse of Oz.
Kalisch began her art training as a child with the discipline of Chinese brush and ink calligraphy. Then she studied landscape drawing, and oil painting. Her life took a different path when at 17 she moved to Tokyo to pursue chemistry studies toward a career as a pharmacist. In 1954, Jean met and married an American serviceman with the Judge Advocate’s Office and moved to California, where she resumed her art studies and eventually exhibited widely, becoming known for her landscape, marine and street scene paintings, like this one. See less