Matilda Lotz

Matilda Lotz was the daughter of German immigrant Johann Lotz who built the Lotz House in 1858. Since the Lotz House was wooden, Mr. Carter from across the street sent a message to Mr. Lotz and his family with an invitation to please make plans to come over to The Carter House in great haste for they were all going down into the basement of the Carter farmhouse to attempt to survive the bullets and cannons and fire of the enemy. This generous invitation was eagerly accepted with great gratitude. Matilda Lotz was a small girl who had turn six years old November 29, 1864, the day before the Battle of Franklin.

Since birth, she had scribbled line drawings in the dirt of household animals and on rare occasions when they were presented a scrap of paper, she would take a small bit of cooled coal from a fireplace, and draw childish figures. It is reported that only once did she attempt to express her artistic ability on a vacant wall, but the discipline that followed was a life learned lesson. Today, an individual can only imagine the dire affect on such a young and sheltered life, upon awakening on December 1, 1864 with great and blessed joy of being alive and then coming up and out of the Carter basement into the overwhelming hurt and horror of thousands of dead bodies of soldiers lying one on top of another.

The Lotz family was never able to recover their struggling life in Franklin, Tennessee following the war. In autumn of 1869, the family was forced to leave the home in which Mr. Lotz took such pride in building.

They migrated west first to Memphis, Tennessee for a brief time and then via covered wagon all the way to California. In 1870 the Lotz family settled in San Jose, California. There Matilda received her first true art lessons from her older brother Paul and other artists employed locally by Wrights Photography Gallery. In 1874, she began a six-year course of study under Virgil Williams at the school of design in San Francisco. While attending that school she won several gold medals and graduated with highest honors.

Matilda was also a pupil of William Keith and in the 1880’s to further her art study in Paris, France under Felix Barrias and the famous animal painter Van Marcke. While in Paris she received an honorable mention for her work exhibited at the Paris Salon and was awarded two gold medals by the Paris Academy of Painting (the first woman ever to be honored by the Academy). She traveled extensively in Europe and Egypt, as a single un-chaperoned woman, something which for the times a woman simply did not do. Despite her work load, she was frequently commissioned to paint portraits of royal families throughout Europe. Matilda found time to return to visit her family in California.

While at home she was commissioned to paint the portrait of George Hearst, father of William Randolph Hearst. Matilda’s painting of George Hearst hangs today in The Hearst Castle. Matilda was also retained to paint the portrait of former California Governor Leland Stanford, the founder of Stanford University. That portrait remains on display at Stanford University. After leading a unique and noteworthy artistic life, she died in Tata, Hungary on Feb. 21, 1923.

Today, Matilda Lotz is recognized as one of California’s premiere early female artists and her work is highly prized and sought after both in the US as well as throughout Europe where she lived most of her adult life. The Lotz House has several of Matilda’s original oil paintings on permanent display including “Sheep at Rest,” “Donkey,” “Wolf,” “Harry Wilkes,” “The Herd,” “Black Sheep” and “The Work Horse.”