San Francisco Church - Pictures Only

These are the cards & postcards as promised in the first "San Francisco Church" posting ...

There were two screens in the church, the main alter and the side chapel. Again, these are postcards...

Main Alter.

Ernest Blumenschein painted this picture. He is famous for starting the TSA, Taos Society of Artist we think in the 1920's. He was an illustrator for; Edgar Allen Poe, Joseph Conrad and many more. We went to his Museum the building which had been his home. Real interesting, it was maintained as when he lived in it. The original of this picture was there.

According to the postcard. In daylight it is a portrait of Christ on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. In darkness the background luminescence and the shadow of a Cross appears over the shoulder of the silhouetted figure of Jesus. Painted in 1896, years before the discovery of radium, the cause of the luminescence remains a mystery.

The painting was first exhibited at the St. Louis World's Fair in 1904 and later throughout Europe. It now resides and can be seen at the Church Rectory Hall in Ranchos de Taos, NM.