Submit a bio  

Artist Biography & Facts
Carlos Vierra

Auction Records (33)   For Sale (1)   Bio/Info   Free Alerts  
Upcoming (0) Wanted (1) Related Artists (24) Pricing my art
Charts (6) Dealers (6) Signatures (6)
Carlos Vierra (1876 - 1937) was active/lived in New Mexico, California.  Carlos Vierra is known for Architectural painting, history murals, cartoons.

Known as the founder of the art colony in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Carlos Vierra was an early traveler throughout the West and was the first professional Caucasian artist to make Santa Fe his home.  He is credited with the preservation of the city's unique atmosphere because of his insuring that the old style of pueblo architecture and historic landmarks were maintained.

Vierra was the son of a Portuguese sailor and was born and raised in Moss Landing, California near Monterey.  He studied art in San Francisco at the Mark Hopkins Institute and with Gottardo Piazzoni, and determined to go to New York for further study, boarded an old wooden ship that sailed around Cape Horn.  The trip took six months, and he struggled to survive financially in New York, but finally achieved success as a cartoonist and marine painter.

Just when he was beginning to feel secure about his future, he developed serious lung problems, and at the advice of his doctor, we   ...  [Displaying 1000 of 5914 characters.]  Artist bio

Artist auction records

.  askART's database currently holds 33 auction lots for Carlos Vierra (of which 20 auction records sold and 0 are upcoming at auction.)

Artist artworks for sale and wanted

.  There are 1 artworks for sale on our website by galleries and art dealers . There are 6 galleries and art dealers listing works of art by Carlos Vierra as either "Wanted" or "For Sale" .

Research resources

.  askART lists Carlos Vierra in 1 of its research Essays. Carlos Vierra has 6 artist signature examples available in our database.

Similar artists

.  There are 24 similar (related) artists for Carlos Vierra available:    Theodore Van Soelen,  Carl Von Hassler,  Sheldon Parsons,  Ben Turner,  William Penhallow Henderson,  Ila McAfee,  Warren Eliphalet Rollins,  Helmuth Naumer,  Ward Lockwood,  Alfred Gwynne Morang,  Gerald Ira Diamond Cassidy,  Charles Berninghaus,  Henry Cornelius Balink,  Gerard Curtis Delano,  Bert Geer Phillips,  Gene Kloss,  Fremont F Ellis,  Bror Nordfeldt,  Leon Gaspard,  Raymond Jonson,  Emil Bisttram,  Ernest Martin Hennings,  Peter Hurd,  Albert Herman Schmidt



Copyright © 1999-2024 askART.com and underlying auction houses. All Rights Reserved. Digital copying of these images and content strictly prohibited; violators will be subject to the law including the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

Facts about Carlos Vierra

   Carlos Vierra  Born:  1876 - Moss Landing, California
Died:   1937 - Santa Fe, New Mexico
Known for:  Architectural painting, history murals, cartoons

Biography from the Archives of askART

Known as the founder of the art colony in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Carlos Vierra was an early traveler throughout the West and was the first professional Caucasian artist to make Santa Fe his home.  He is credited with the preservation of the city's unique atmosphere because of his insuring that the old style of pueblo architecture and historic landmarks were maintained.

Vierra was the son of a Portuguese sailor and was born and raised in Moss Landing, California near Monterey.  He studied art in San Francisco at the Mark Hopkins Institute and with Gottardo Piazzoni, and determined to go to New York for further study, boarded an old wooden ship that sailed around Cape Horn.  The trip took six months, and he struggled to survive financially in New York, but finally achieved success as a cartoonist and marine painter.

Just when he was beginning to feel secure about his future, he developed serious lung problems, and at the advice of his doctor, went to Santa Fe where he opened a photography studio on the Plaza.  He regained his health, was successful at marketing photographs, worked at his painting, and pressured to keep the architectural integrity of the city.

With Edgar Hewitt, Director, he was involved in restoring the Palace of the Governors, and he excelled at mural work, completing scenes of St. Francis with Kenneth Chapman for the new museum murals begun by Donald Beauregard.  Vierra's murals of Mayan cities are in the California Building in Balboa Park, San Diego.

He also was so skillful at target shooting that he served as an instructor with the National Guard, and in 1916, was a Captain of the Guard during border skirmishes with the Villistas.

"Very few people know that Vierra was also a pioneer in aerial photography; in fact, he flew over and photographed Chaco Canyon shortly before Charles Lindberg made his own photographc flight over the same area." (Robertson, 27)

Sources include:
Michael Grauer, "The Founding of Santa Fe Art", American Art Review, August 2004, p. 150
Edna Robertson and Sarah Nestor, Artists of the Canyons and Caminos: Santa Fe, The Early Years


Biography from the Archives of askART

Born in Moss Landing, CA on Oct. 3, 1876. Vierra was educated in the public schools of Monterey. About 1896 he moved to San Francisco where he studied art with Piazzoni and at the Mark Hopkins Institute. In 1901 he sailed around the Horn to NYC where he spent two years as a marine painter. For health reasons he settled in Santa Fe, NM in 1904, becoming Santa Fe's first professional resident artist. Vierra is best known for his architectural renderings of the old missions and adobes of New Mexico. Exh: San Francisco Art Association, 1904-05; Oakland Art Fund, 1905; Starr King Fraternity (Oakland), 1905. Murals in: Santa Fe Museum; Balboa Park (San Diego).

Edan Hughes, "Artists in California, 1786-1940"
American Western Art (Harmsen); Artists of the American West (Samuels); Artists of the American West (Doris Dawdy); American Art Annual 1919; California State Library (Sacramento); NY Times,12-31-1937 (obituary).

Nearly 20,000 biographies can be found in Artists in California 1786-1940 by Edan Hughes and is available for sale ($150). For a full book description and order information please click here.


Biography from Mark Sublette Medicine Man Gallery

Carlos Vierra was born and raised in Moss Landing, California, near Monterrey. He studied art under Gottardo Piazzoni at the Mark Hopkins Institute before leaving San Francisco on a grueling six-month trip around Cape Horn to New York City. Once there, he worked hard to become a cartoonist, a growing artistic field at the time. After much struggling, his art begin to comfortably sustain him, though the comfort would be short-lived.

In 1904, Vierra contracted a potentially deadly lung disease. At the urging of his doctor, he moved to Santa Fe, whose climate was thought to be ideal for those recuperating from lung ailments. In Santa Fe, Vierra found himself the only western artist in a compact, fascinating town of varied ethnic and cultural makeup. One of his sustaining passions would be the architecture of Santa Fe and the surrounding pueblos, which he was commissioned by Frank Springer to paint in 1914, the beginning of a process that would eventually lead to a concerted preservation effort being launched to maintain the historical architecture of the Santa Fe area.

Vierra's primary form of income was a photography studio he opened on the Plaza. He also accepted painting commissions, doing mural work in San Diego's Balboa Park and renovation work at the Palace of the Governors in Santa Fe. As he was the first white artist in Santa Fe, he is also credited with forming the Santa Fe Art Colony.


Biography from Altermann Galleries and Auctioneers, VII

Carlos Vierra arrived in Santa Fe in 1904 and was the first artist to make it his permanent home.

Vierra loved adobe architecture and was one of the principal designers of "Santa Fe style," a unique blend of Spanish and Pueblo Indian design. It was chosen for Santa Fe's Fine Arts Museum, perhaps the finest example of Santa Fe style in existence.

Source: The Rockwell Museum


Biography from Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum

A California native of Portuguese descent, Carlos Vierra studied and worked as a cartoonist in New York before lung disease forced his move to Santa Fe in 1904.  He became Santa Fe's first resident artist and thus founded the art colony.  Vierra opened a photography and painting studio on the plaza and committed himself to recording local architecture before it disappeared. 

In 1914, Frank Springer commissioned him to paint all the mission churches at each pueblo.  Consequently, along with Springer, architect John Gaw Meem and Edgar L. Hewitt, director of the Museum of New Mexico, Vierra can be credited with preserving in his paintings both Puebloan and "Santa Fe Style" architecture. 

Vierra also painted murals for the Museum of Fine Arts at Santa Fe (including using himself as the model for Christopher Columbus) and for the Panama-American International Exposition at San Diego in 1915.


** If you discover credit omissions or have additional information to add, please let us know at [email protected].

Share an image of the Artist: [email protected].
Top