You can visualize Mission San Juan Capistrano
as a work of art with its majestic ruins of the Great Stone Church
standing in recent solitude, attesting to an era long past, and
as you walk along ancient cloisters amid the time-softened beauty
of old adobe buildings.
The Mission gardens, renown for their beauty,
compliment the functional, artistic simplicity of its buildings
with rich, redolent flowers. Red bougainvillea spills over a lovely
arch on the main corridor, as bright water lilies float languidly
on the surface of an old Moorish fountain in the center of the patio.
The flowering trees and shrubs brought by ships from distant gardens
of the world fill the Mission in a manner reminiscent of the famous
gardens of Spain. Those brooding ruins, those shaded walls, those
timeworn pathways and brightly colored gardens are what made Mission
San Juan Capistrano the most often portrayed structure in America.
By this time, you’ve
gotten the picture; as well as literally hundreds of artists have.
Soft lights and shadows, brilliant colors and timeless beauty lured
Impressionist painters in droves to Mission San Juan Capistrano
during the period of 1890-1930. They came by horseback, cart, train,
Model T and bicycle. They painted scenes of the old Mission from
virtually every angle and sold their paintings to tourists to sustain
themselves.
It was not just the allure
of the Mission itself which brought them, but also the encouraging
by their pastor, Father St. John O’Sullivan. When Fr. O’Sullivan
arrived in 1910, dying of tuberculosis, he felt a great empathy
with the ruined, decaying old Mission and likened it to the state
of his own frail body. In the time left to him, he was determined
to restore the Mission to its former grandeur and bring about a
glory in its gardens which would rival those of the famed Alhambra
in Spain.
A lover of beauty and art, Fr. O’Sullivan sought
to share it and immortalize the Mission as a precious glimpse of
a glorious past by inviting artists to come to the Mission and paint.
He was much enamored of the Impressionist, or "plein-air" style,
prevalent in California at that time. It was a style solely concerning
light, color and the 'impression' of the natural beauty of the open
air. It had been the warm, open air living of California that brought
Fr. O’Sullivan, for reasons of health, to Capistrano. It worked
- the love of his work, healthful climate and the Grace of God enabled
him to live until 1933.
During his tenure, Fr. O’Sullivan’s
hospitality and the Mission’s beauty brought famous and aspiring
painters from all over the world. Joseph Kleitsch, noted Belgian
portraitist, stayed at the Mission and the nearby Laguna art colony
and painted brilliant color scenes in the Mission gardens.
John Gutzon-Borglum, best known for his Mt. Rushmore
sculpture, painted the Mission in its decay, while his then better-known
wife, Elizabeth, captured the beauty of its graceful arches. Colin
Campbell Cooper painted there in 1916, selling some of his works,
and gave one to Fr. O’Sullivan. Fannie Duval painted a beautiful
emotional scene of little girls while in First Communion dresses
skipping through the cloisters on the way to chapel.
Artist Charles Percy Austin gave several paintings
to the Mission which he often stayed at. Most notable was one of
silent screen star, Mary Pickford’s wedding (her first), after Fr.
O’Sullivan performed the marriage rites. Austin also did the illustrations
for "Little Chapters" (1912), the story of Mission San Juan Capistrano,
written by Fr. O’Sullivan. Other artists who enjoyed Mission hospitality
were Franz Bischoff, Alson Clark, William Wendt, and many more.
