E. Charlton Fortune
American 1885-1969

A renowned painter of landscapes and harbor scenes, E. Charlton Fortune is recognized as one of the most significant painters in the history of California art and has become one of the most sought-after women painters of the West. She was an early member of the Carmel Art Association when it was founded in 1927.

Euphemia Charlton Fortune was born in Sausalito, California and studied at Edinburgh College of Art in Scotland and St. Johns Wood School of Art in London. She returned to California in 1905, studied under Arthur Mathews at the Mark Hopkins School of Design, graduating the year of the 1906 fire in the same class as Armin Hansen and Thomas A. McGlynn. She also studied under William Merritt Chase and Frank Vincent DuMond in New York, and exhibited to great acclaim in both the US and Europe. By 1913, she had returned to California, dividing her time between San Francisco and Monterey and opened a studio. In the mid-1930s Fortune abandoned landscape painting and founded the Monterey Guild, an association dedicated to reviving ecclesiastical art in Catholic Churches.