Lot 4: *CHARLES C. NAHL (1818-1878) BOATING ON THE CHAGRES RIVER

signed C. Nahl and dated 1855, l.r. oil on tin 6 1/4 by 7 3/4 in.15.9 by 19.7 cm. Located in Central America, the Chagres River played a vital role in the steamship travel between New York and San Francisco during the gold rush. As depicted in the present work, passengers had to cross the Isthmus of Panama via the Chagres in a bongo river boat poled by natives. While taking this route in 1851, Nahl made detailed sketches of the local landscape, now lost, which probably served as the basis for works such as this. Another Chagres River scene, painted in 1867, is in the Honeyman Collection, the Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley (cf. Moreland L. Stevens, Charles Christian Nahl, Artist of the Gold Rush, Sacramento, 1976, no. 31, p. 137).