The Mystery of the Poppy Nymph

Our local girl, the "Poppy Nymph" by Jo Mora
as described in the Museum of Local History's article
"The Poppy Nymph"

One of the fascinating topics of the PPIE: "Where did everything go during the salvage and wreckage phase of the exposition?"

Fremont ended up with the Japanese Pavillion's Commissioner Office, the Chilean flagpole, some of the palm trees, and some medals and certificates.

Legend has it that we also ended up with a sculpture that was displayed in the Palace of Fine Arts at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, Jo Mora's "Poppy Nymph".  This sculpture is presently residing in the Niles library.

I wanted to see if I could find a photo of the Poppy Nymph in her location at the PPIE. What I found is that there is a bit of a mystery. Was she there? or wasn't she? Often what you find is more interesting than what local legend says.








You might ask Who is Jo Mora? And that is fascinating and will be updated soon. But you can think cowboys and Western motifs for now.

I searched the catalogs and pictures for the Poppy Nymph and found nothing. The Official Catalogue of the Palace of Fine Arts, Panama-Pacific International Exposition (With Awards), San Francisco, California, 1915 didn't list anything that looked remotely like a poppy nymph.

At some point, I sent a note to Jim Ganz, the deYoung curator for the exhibit, "Jewel City: Art from the Panama-Pacific International Exposition", coming in October 2015. He did not see the "Poppy Nymph" sculpture listed in the exhibits (see references). Jane Glover (copied on note) said that it appears in the "Second Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture by California Artists, 1916. held at the de Young (what was then called the Golden Gate Park Memorial Museum).   There were 214 paintings and 16 sculptures.  No specific dates given—just 1916.  Most of the works in the exhibition were for sale." This book is not online currently. So was this sculpture just exhibited and then sold after the exposition?

From 

Illustrated catalogue of the post-exposition exhibition 

in the Department of Fine Arts, 

Panama-Pacific International Exposition, 

San Francisco, California, 

January first to May first, nineteen hundred and sixteen.

The Second Exhibition was after the PPIE Closed on December 4, 1915. 

I came across the "Poppy Girl" in a post-PPIE exhibition catalog. These post-PPIE exhibitions were held during the time when the exposition was being torn down and everything sold off and you could buy state buildings and windows and plants.

By now, you've probably noticed that the base of the sculpture is different in these two pictures. Was this a clay sculpture?

The Poppy Nymph in the book, Jo Mora, Artist and Writer

I looked at this book at the Museum of Local History. I can't convince myself that the base looks the same as the library poppy nymph. 

From Jo Mora, Artist and Writer, 1998

A visit to the Poppy Nymph in Niles

Unfortunately I did not take a photo of the Poppy Nymph from the same angle. It should be easy to compare the base on both sculptures when I get a photo from the right angle.

References

• Panama-Pacific International Exposition: Tracking Down the Artifacts
• Museum of Local History article "The Poppy Nymph"
• Second Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture by California Artists, 1916 (not online, but at Bancroft p N739.5 A54 1916) 
• Illustrated catalogue of the post-exposition exhibition in the Department of Fine Arts, Panama-Pacific International Exposition, San Francisco, California, January first to May first, nineteen hundred and sixteen.
• Art in California, a Survey of  American Art with Special Reference to Californian painting, sculpture and architecture past and present, particularly as those arts were represented at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition; being essays and articles by the following contributors, Bruce Porter, 1916. Poppy Nymph is plate 205. This is not the same as the Niles Poppy Nymph. This talks about post-exposition exhibition, so there might be some clues in here. Also this seems to be equivalent with:
• California's Magazine, vol. 1, where the same poppy nymph shows up, but in psychedelic scanned coloring. Volume 2 is also online.
• The Official Catalogue of the Palace of Fine Arts, Panama-Pacific International Exposition (With Awards), San Francisco, California, 1915 lists these sculptures for Jo MoraL

From the Offical Catalogue