By Kinen Carvala
What Golden Gate Park feature was displayed in a gentlemen's club for years?
The word "Bohemian" in the 19th century was applied to artists and other creative types. 19th century French speakers thought that Roma people ("Gypsies") and others living in Parisian "lower-rent districts" came from the Czech region of Bohemia, according to the Merriam-Webster website, and the word was applied to artists associated with the area.
The Bohemian Club was founded in 1872 in San Francisco. Its by-laws state the club is for "the association of gentlemen connected professionally with literature, art, music, the drama" though people through "their love or appreciation of these objects" can also be eligible.
Only four women have been honorary members of the club; the latest being poet Ina Coolbrith who died in 1928, according to Alexis Coe. Women have not been granted full membership; in 2019 two members of the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors called for county attorneys to review the contract under which the Bohemian Club reimburses the county for law enforcement costs for the annual summer private gathering of club members at the Bohemian Grove along the Russian River, reported Guy Kovner for the Santa Rosa Press Democrat in 2019.
Mark Twain became an honorary member in 1873. The club had few competitors in its early years as an organization in California for creatives to join, but over time other organizations grew and by the 1920s, the club was no longer avant-garde and became increasingly private.
Professor Michael Burns of Florida's Nova University Law Center said the Bohemian Club is "where the power brokers are," according to a 1987 article by Dan Morain in the LA Times.
Though Bohemian Grove gatherings have attracted power brokers, like former presidents Ronald Reagan, Richard Nixon and George H.W. Bush, according to Dominic Fracassa writing for the SF Chronicle, the lub's website describes the club as "a refuge from decision-making and other pressures" where conducting business is prohibited.
Sculptor Arthur Putnam (1873-1930) joined the Bohemian Club in 1903, according to a 1904 Bohemian Club membership list. Putnam studied animals of the American West and their anatomy in the course of his various jobs as slaughterhouse worker, surveyor and ranch hand in California, according to his California Art Research Archive (CARA) biography. Putnam took art classes in San Francisco and also assisted animal sculptor Edward Kemeys in Chicago before getting his first major commission in 1903 from publisher E. W. Scripps. In 1911, brain surgery partially paralyzed Putnam, effectively ending his career.
Sculptor Arthur Putnam was a member of the Bohemian Club when he created the Cave Man sculpture as a fun addition to the annual "grove play" at the private club in the early 1900s. The work can be found in Golden Gate Park, hidden among the trees just east of the de Young Museum. Photo by Michael Durand.
Porter Garnett's 1908 "The Bohemian Jinks: A Treatise" described cartoons and posters decorating the Bohemian Grove fitting the theme of "Midsummer High Jinks," the term for the annual play for that summer's grove play.
The Cave Man statue that is in Golden Gate Park today was created "in compliment (sic) to the annual grove play," according to the Aug. 6, 1910, SF Call. At this point, the statue was still only plaster and was planned to be "bronze coated for its final resting place in the new clubhouse on Post street" in San Francisco. Bohemian Club members gave $2,000 for the bronze casting of the statue, according to the Aug. 12, 1910, SF Examiner. The bronze casting was done in Paris by Alexis Rudier, according to an inscription on the pedestal. The left hand holds a piece of flint and while the right hand scratches the cave man's head amazed at discovering how to make fire with flint. Putnam's other sculptures for the Bohemian Club included two pumas, according to his CARA biography.
Adolph Spreckels joined the Bohemian Club in 1878 according to a 1904 Bohemian Club membership list; he and his wife Alma founded the Palace of the Legion of Honor Museum, which later became the Legion of Honor and formally merged with the de Young Museum to create the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (FAMSF) in 1972, according to the FAMSF website. "The Cave Man" was described as Putnam's most famous work in 1922 in a Washington Star article covering the founding of the California Legion of Honor in San Francisco. Mrs. Spreckels was giving 200 works of Putnam to the new museum. "Cave Man," (listed without "the" on the FAMSF website) has an accession number of 1924.180, implying it was given in 1924.
According to the FAMSF website, 36 x 28 x 32 inches are the dimensions of the sculpture.
Today, Cave Man is in the tree-covered northeast corner of the George and Judy Marcus Garden of Enchantment to the east of the de Young Museum. The Garden's western edge is a path running from the Music Concourse north to JFK Promenade and 10th Avenue, passing the de Young's side entry near the base of the Hamon Observatory Tower.
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