- City:
- Martinez, CA
- Site Type:
- Art Works, Murals
- New Deal Agencies:
- Arts Programs, Treasury Section of Fine Arts (TSFA)
- Started:
- 1939
- Completed:
- 1939
- Artists:
- Edith Hamlin, Maynard Dixon
- Quality of Information:
- Very Good
- Marked:
- No
- Site Survival:
- Extant
Description
The Martinez downtown post office contains an oil-on-canvas New Deal mural, “The Road to Eldorado” by noted California artists Edith Hamlin and Maynard Dixon. It was funded by the Treasury Section of Fine Arts in 1939.
The subject matter of the mural appears to be a selection of early settlers of Martinez, with the city and the Carquinez Strait in the background (at the edges), including a Californio (Indian?), prospector and sailor on the left and a businessman and town women on the right, with a postal rider in the middle (in buckskin). The title seems deftly ironic, but not critical.
F0r more information on the mural by Dixon and Hamlin, see the post office nomination for the National Register, below.
Source notes
Nomination of Martinez post office to National Register, 2012
King, John. Chasing Bay Area artifacts of the New Deal. San Francisco Chronicle. September 1, 2008.
https://newdealartregistry.org
Site originally submitted by New Deal Art Registry on June 6, 2009.
Additional contributions by Richard Walker.
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Diana Vergil
Hi I wanted to print this information off the website but it looked scrambled. Who are the people in the painting? Thank you Diana