Bird Rock

Born in Austria, Bischoff received training in applied design, watercolor and ceramic decorations as a young man before emigrating to the United States in 1885.  He became tremendously successful as a painter of porcelain, working in New York, Pittsburgh, and Ohio before settling in Dearborn, Michigan. Bischoff turned to easel painting after moving permanently to California in 1906. Inspired by the California landscape, he began making vibrant and light-filled Impressionist views of the desert around Palm Springs, the poppy fields of Arroyo Seco, and the coasts of Monterey and Laguna Beach. A member of the California Art Club, Bischoff is considered one of the leading Southern California plein-air landscape painters of the early 20th century. 

The title of this painting refers to a rock—so nicknamed because it was perceived as being shaped like a bird—located off the shore of La Jolla in San Diego.