Born in Oslo, Norway on Oct. 7, 1860 Christian Jorgensen moved to San Francisco with his mother in 1870. He showed artistic promise at an early age, and when the School of Design opened in 1874, he was among the first to enroll.

At 14 he was greatly influenced at that school by Virgil Williams, who was both teacher and father figure. Jorgensen later became an instructor at the School of Design and served as assistant director from 1881-83.

He then established a studio at 131 Post Street where he continued teaching, and by the mid-1880s was a successful landscape painter. For five years he and his wife, Angela, traveled by horse and buggy to the sites of the 21 California missions and during this period

Source: Edan Hughes, "Artists in California, 1786-1940"
Yesterday's Artists on the Monterey Peninsula; Views of Yosemite; From Frontier to Fire; California Design 1910; Artists of the American West (Doris Dawdy); Bay of SF, vol. 2, p. 223; California Art Research, 20 volumes; Death record.

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