E. Charlton Fortune: Precursor to the Renaissance of Religious Art in the San Francisco Bay Area

In the fall of 1952 an exhibition of religious art showing the work of ninety-four California artists was held at the De Young Memorial Museum in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. The committee responsible for the exhibition comprised a group of Bay Area artists, architects, and religious leaders.¹ Shortly after the exhibit, core members of the organizing committee established the Catholic Art Forum to further the momentum generated by the exhibit and advance the aims of the organization: "[T]o foster a greater interest in and appreciation of religious art of the living Catholic tradition—with particular emphasis on the contemporary form."² These founders—artists, art educators, and "others interested in the problems of Church art"—sought to improve the quality of liturgical art and architecture by advancing the tenets of modernism, support the work of local artists, and promote a new visual language for religious art linked to tradition.³ Their efforts and the ferment leading to the establishment of the Catholic Art Forum are documented in a transcribed oral history completed in 1985, titled the Renaissance of Religious Art and Architecture in the San Francisco Bay Area, 1946-1968. The document's senior editor, Suzanne Riess described the project as "a record of twenty-three individuals' understanding of their own efforts to represent the new forms and perceptions" that were emerging and their contributions to the transformation of religious art.⁴

Many interviewees identified E. Charlton Fortune (1885-1969) as instrumental in laying the groundwork for this "renaissance." In the first recorded interview, William J. Monihan, S.J., a founding member of the Catholic Art Forum and director of the University of San Francisco Gleeson Library, emphatically stated, "I would encourage anyone who reads this record of our interview to pursue any archive of this Charlton Fortune, called Effie Fortune."⁵ Others interviewed recalled her wide-ranging interests: giving lectures on sacred art; identifying exemplary church renovations; advocacy for enlisting talented local artists; and participation in the broader liturgical movement.⁶ Acknowledging her tenacity, energy, and vision, in short, they identified her as precursor to the "renaissance of religious art" in the Bay Area.

This "renaissance," cited as commencing in 1946 and culminating with the dissolution of the Catholic Art Forum in 1968, was initially part of a wider thrust to improve the quality of liturgical art in the early twentieth century during a time of liturgical ferment in the United States. Between the turn of the century and the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), liturgists, theologians, architects, and artists engaged in fruitful dialogue aiming to revitalize liturgy. Inspired by the Catholic liturgical movement in Europe, the liturgical movement in the United States focused on active participation of the people in worship, restoring liturgy's relationship to life, reforming the way people lived as members of the Church, and extending this reform beyond the Church to society.⁷ As these efforts progressed, artists created sacred art and architects designed worship space according to the highest standards of craftsmanship and the emerging sensibilities of ecclesial beauty. On the West Coast, E. Charlton Fortune became the first to commit her artistic talents to the liturgical movement.

E. Charlton Fortune in her studio, ca. 1940 (Courtesy of Monterey Museum of Art, E. C. Fortune Archive, Monterey, California).

In the historical record, E. Charlton Fortune's achievements as an Impressionist painter supersede her liturgical contributions.⁸ In major works of liturgical history, she is virtually unknown.⁹ Though a true pioneer under-appreciated during her time and overlooked in the historical record, Fortune was fervently committed to improving the quality of liturgical art. She did so while maneuvering a course she termed as the "via media;" a path grounded in knowledge of artistic tradition with a cautious openness to modernism.

This essay illuminates E. Charlton Fortune's contributions in liturgical design, education, and advocacy revealing her efforts to create a climate for the Bay Area "religious art renaissance" to emerge. While much...