Media Category: History 101

Fun and interesting anecdotes from Santa Barbara’s rich history.

De la Guerra Welcome

A Welcome to the Casa, 1932
W. H. D. Koerner (American, 1878-1938)
Oil on canvas
36 x 30 in.
Gift of Ruth Koerner Oliver
11.82.76.1

De la Guerra silver

De la Guerra Family Coffee and Tea Service, 1814
Sterling silver, Gerardus Boyce, New York, N.Y. maker
Coffee urn, two teapots, sugar and creamer
Gift of Alfred Dibblee Poett
1987.23.1 – 5

De la Guerra Dinnerware, c. 1804
Two plates from a set of twenty-four gifted to José de la Guerra on his marriage in Mexico City.
Pure silver, Mexican
Inscribed José de la Guerra y Noriega Noveles, 1779-España
Frederica Dibblee Poett Bequest
8.71.73.2 and 1999.98.12

De la Guerra Platter, c. 1804
Pure silver, Mexican
Inscribed José de la Guerra y Noriega Noveles, 1779-España
Frederica Dibblee Poett Bequest
1999.98.6

De la Guerra Madonna

This exquisite figure was owned by Jose De la Guerra and graced Casa De la Guerra for many years. Look closely and you will see that Madonna’s gold crown is accented with Baroque pearls, rubies, and a 2¼ carat diamond.

Madonna and Christ
Maker unknown, Peruvian, c. 1820
Alabaster, jewels, and polychrome
17 ¾ x 6 ½ inches
Gift of Delfina Russell Mott
2004.103

De la Guerra Desk

Ownership of silver provided a sense of aristocracy and guaranteed financial stability during the colonization of California. Under Spanish law, silversmithing was illegal, except in urban centers like Mexico City where the purity in finished pieces could be assured. This produced heavier objects of a higher luster unlike any silver in the world.p>

Desk Set of José de la Guerra, c. 1791-1818
Pure silver, Mexican, Neoclassical Style
The urns are inkwells and sand shakers.
Gift of Virginia Dibblee 12.81.82.1

Canyon Borg

Considered one of California’s finest landscape painters, Carl Oscar Borg (1879-1947) was renowned for his evocative landscapes of the American West, particularly his monumental canvases of the deserts and mountains of New Mexico, Arizona, and their Native American inhabitants.

Borg first arrived in Santa Barbara in 1918, and resided here periodically for the rest of his life. He taught at the Santa Barbara School of the Arts, and included among his friends nationally acclaimed cowboy artist John Edward Borein, and landscapist Fernand Lungren. In 1909, Borg’s work caught the eye of Phoebe Appleton Hearst, mother of William Randolph Hearst, who became his patroness.

Canyon de Chelly at Night
Carl Oscar Borg (Swedish, 1879-1947)
Oil on canvas
25 x 30 inches
Museum Acquisition Fund
Through the generosity of Jo Beth Van Gelderen
2005.99