Camp Crocker G Company
Second Artillery
Description
Joseph Strong - The son of a congregational minister, Joseph Strong, was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, in 1852. When his father became minister of the Fort Street Church in Honolulu, Joseph moved with his family and spent part of his childhood in Hawaii. Perhaps this early brush with the islands had a lasting effect, as he was to become one of Hawaii's most prominent landscape and portrait artists as an adult.
Strong's family returned to the mainland in 1859, moving to Oakland, California. As a young man, he studied at the California School of Design with Virgil Williams, who was to have a pronounced influence on his pupil, encouraging him to follow the teachings of the Munich rather than the more popular Parisian school of painting. Strong was already such a talent at a young age that a portrait he painted of the mayor of Oakland impressed the citizenry so much that they funded his trip to Munich. From 1875 to 1877, he studied there with Carl Piloty and an artist named Wagner. He exhibited at the Royal Academy, winning two medals, and also at the National Academy of Design.
Returning to California in 1877, Strong became an established artist in San Francisco, where he oTry it!
