Jo Mora

Yosemite Map

Joseph Jacinto "Jo" Mora (1876–1947) was a Uruguayan-born American cartoonist, illustrator and cowboy, who lived with the Hopi and wrote extensively about his experiences in California. He was an artist-historian, sculptor, painter, photographer, illustrator, muralist and author. He has been called the "Renaissance Man of the West".

Biography

Mora was born on October 22, 1876 in Montevideo, Uruguay. His father was the Catalonian sculptor, Domingo Mora, and his mother was Laura Gaillard Mora, an intellectual French woman. His elder brother was F. Luis Mora, who would become an acclaimed artist and the first Hispanic member of the National Academy of Design. The family entered the United States in 1880 and first settled in New York, and then Perth Amboy, New Jersey. Jo Mora studied art in the New York and Boston, at the Art Student's League in New York and the Cowles School in Boston. He studied with William Merritt Chase. In Boston, he worked as a cartoonist for a newspaper called the Boston Traveler and then worked for the Boston Herald.

In the Spring of 1903, Mora arrived in Solvang, California. He stayed at the Donohue Ranch. He made plans to travel to the Southwest to paint and photograph the Hopi. He spent time at the Mission Santa Inés; those photographs are now maintained by the Smithsonian Institution. Mora visited many Spanish missions in California that summer by horseback. He followed the "Mission Trail", also called the "Kings Highway".

From 1904 to 1906, Mora lived with the Hopi and Navajo near Oraibi, Arizona. He took photographs, painted and otherwise recorded the daily life of these Native Americans, including the Hopi Snake Dance. He learned the Native languages and made detailed drawings of what he observed.[1]

The Bret Harte Memorial in San Francisco.

In 1907, Mora returned to California and married Grace Needham. Their son, Joseph Needham Mora, was born on March 8, 1908. The Moras moved to San Jose, California, where Mora continued his work. By 1919, he was sculpting for the Bohemian Club, including a memorial plaque dedicated to Bret Harte, completed in August 1919 and mounted on the outside of the private men's club building in San Francisco. In 1925, he designed the commemorative half dollar for the California Diamond Jubilee. During this period he also illustrated a number of books, made large murals, and published charts, maps (cartes) and diagrams of the West and Western themes. Beginning in 1937, Mora wrote and illustrated children's books about the West. In 1939, a Works Progress Administration project was completed, with Mora bas-relief sculpture adorning the King City High School Auditorium building. Mora died October 10, 1947, in Monterey, California.

In music

Scratching A Twister, 1915
Poppy Girl, 1915
The facade of the Robert Stanton Theater at King City High School in King City, California. Completed in 1939, this Works Progress Administration project featured bas-relief sculpture by Jo Mora

References

  1. ↑
    • Pecina, Ron and Pecina, Bob. Neil David’s Hopi World. Schiffer Publishing Ltd., 2011. ISBN 978-0-7643-3808-3.
  2. ↑ "Californios Resplandores". Fred Smoot. Retrieved 2008-12-14.

Bibliography

Museum Catalogs

External links