1860 Payot / Gosselin View of San Francisco (Chinese-American Content)

This is an extremely rare c. 1860 Louis Le Breton chromolithograph view map of San Francisco. It was printed in Paris by François-Désiré Gosselin in conjunction with San Francisco publisher Henry Payot. This early iteration of the view is significant for its early - and unique - depiction of Chinese immigration to California, focusing on San Francisco's Chinatown.

A Glimpse of San Francisco's Early Chinese Immigrants

The view corresponds closely with surviving photographic evidence and may have been based on a photograph. The view looks eastward from atop Nob Hill down Sacramento Street, with Powell Avenue in the foreground. That intersection is significant for its connection with important Chinese immigrant centers. It includes the future site of the Chinese Mission House at 920 Sacramento, an is near the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association on Stockton.

In the foreground, a group of Chinese laborers gather. Their presence emphasizes the immigrant residents to a degree unique to this view: the 1870 reissue of this view by Isador Laurent Deroy (1797 - 1886) replaced the Chinese figures with the wealthy families who settled Nob Hill in subsequent decades. Likewise, later copyists such as Hess, in 1874, fully removed these all references to Chinese immigration, reflecting negatively changing attitudes towards the Chinese following the end of the push to complete the railroads. But at the time this view was produced, laborers were in high demand and the immigration of Chinese workers was encouraged.

Chinese Immigration to San Francisco

Chinese immigration is closely linked to the development of San Francisco. The first waves followed closely on the U.S. annexation of California after the Mexican-American War (1846 - 1848). Most were fleeing famine and economic depression in southeastern China. During the California Gold Rush, they found work in construction and at mining camps. In the years following the production of this view, Chinese laborers would be recruited to construct the railroads.

An Expanding City

As San Francisco expanded, Nob Hill itself presented a challenge to developers due to its forbidding slopes, which made both construction and transportation difficult. When this view was produced, Powell Avenue represented the limit of the construction up the eastern slope of the hill. The immediate foreground is largely barren, showing none of the grading which soon afterwards led to the extension of Sacramento Street. In the distance, Sacramento Street is filled with well-dressed men and women - evidence of the city's early prosperity. The city is densely built with attractive buildings, and an array of churches: Saint Mary's Cathedral is evident at right. In the background, the bustling harbor and Yerba Buena Island are recognizable. Telegraph Hill appears at the left, Rincon Point at the right. The hilltop is rocky and windswept, with a broken palm relieving the bracken.

An International Production

The view was drawn for Henry Payot in San Francisco. Payot initially issued it as a small black and white lithograph entitled 'View of San Francisco in 1860' (Reps 283). It was Payot's Paris collaborator, François-Désiré Gosselin who tapping the talented lithographic engraver Le Breton to transform the original artwork into this superb image. While presenting the same perspective as Payot's earlier work, Le Breton's work incorporates a broader sky, a deeper foreground, superior lithography, and striking color augmented by hand-highlighting. Le Breton produced other views of San Francisco a decade before, possibly from firsthand observation.

Gosselin provided printing and distribution for other publishers, as here. Payot himself was a first-generation French-American bookseller. He was active with French-American immigrant societies, publishing a weekly French-language newspaper, and specialized in French educational works. He cultivated deep relationships with Parisian publishers, thus the present partnership.

Chromolithography

Chromolithography, sometimes called oleography, is a color lithographic technique developed in the mid-19th century. The process involved using multiple lithographic stones, one for each color, to yield a rich composite effect. Oftentimes, the process would start with a black basecoat upon which subsequent colors were layered. Some chromolithographs used 30 or more separate lithographic stones to achieve the desired product. Chromolithograph color could also be effectively blended for even more dramatic results. The process became extremely popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries when it emerged as the dominant method of color printing. The vivid color chromolithography produced made it exceptionally effective for advertising and propaganda imagery.

Publication History and Census

This lithograph was composed in Paris by Louis Le Breton and published by François-Désiré Gosselin. Although depicting the city in 1860, the view was likely printed a year or two later. The Gosselin lithograph lacks an imprint date, but cannot credibly postdate Le Breton's 1866 death, or Gosselin's in 1867.

The Payot-Gosselin view is extremely rare. Reps, writing in 1984, identified just a single surviving example, located in a private collection. We are aware of three: one at the Reid W. Dennis collection at Stanford, an example that appeared at auction, and the present example. Of those three, this is by far the superior example. No examples are cataloged in OCLC.