Oil painting of Olema by del Mue, 1938. Marin History Museum Collection.
Five-year-old Maurice del Mue and his mother arrived in the burgeoning city of San Francisco in 1880, following his father who had come to California to work in the silver mines. After studying art at prestigious schools in San Francisco and abroad, he became immersed in the city’s bohemian art scene. In 1902, he formed the California Society of Artists with fellow artists in protest to the conservative attitudes of the San Francisco Art Association.
Del Mue worked as staff artist for the San Francisco Call and Chronicle during the 1920s while continuing to paint at his easel. During the Depression, he was hired by the WPA to paint murals for various institutions in Marin County, including Tamalpais High School, College of Marin, and Hamilton Air Force Base. Del Mue is best known for his landscape paintings in soft, subdued tones, including a favorite shade of blue he light-heartedly coined “del Mue blue.”