Summer 2024

Remembering Effie The Lasting Local Impact of a Great California Ar tist B Y AME L I A WARD E uphemia Charlton Fortune, known by friends and family as “Effie,” is one of the artists most highly prized by collectors of the early California era. Fortune stud- ied and began her career in a time when the field of art was completely dom- inated by men, yet she never let that fact deter her from pursuing her career and was respected and embraced by her male peers. She chose to sign her work as E. Charlton Fortune, which didn’t immediately identify her sex, and in some early reviews the critics mistakenly believed her paintings to be the work of a man. She was even awarded a silver medal by the prestigious Société des Artistes Français Salon that was attributed to “Monsieur Fortune.”And after she was known to be a woman, her work was often praised for its bold, masculine style not considered typical of female artists at that time. Fortune was a longtime resident of the Monterey Peninsula and though she traveled extensively and lived in many other locales throughout her life, the draw of the beauty and customs of the historic town of Monterey, her family and her lasting friendships and associations with fellow artists and preservationists, proved too strong for her to stay away for long. She was diligent in all her pursuits, and through her art and her interest in historic preservation, Fortune left an impressive mark on the Monterey Peninsula that can still be seen today. Fortune was born in Sausalito, California, in 1885, to a Scottish father and an American mother. She inherited a cleft palate from her father—and it was said that she never mar- ried and chose not to have children in order to avoid passing on the trait. Fortune’s father died of pulmonary disease when she was nine, leaving her mother alone to care for Fortune and her younger brother James. Fortune’s aunt took her to Scotland at the age of 12, where she was enrolled in a convent school in Edinburgh. After graduating she went on to study art in London for a year, though according to her autobiography, art did not come easily to her, “Mine was a ‘late vocation’...it was a nagging and difficult time and the courses were antipathetic to me, however, I learned about self discipline...” But with her education financed by a wealthy uncle who saw promise in her and encouraged her to continue, she persisted.While in the U.K., her uncle paid for her to have an artificial palate made, which improved her appearance and speech. No surgeries to correct the deformity were available at the time. 148 C A R M E L M A G A Z I N E • S U M M E R 2 0 2 4