Cypress Point, Monterey

 Born in Belgium of French parents, Cleenewerck studied art at the academies in Poperinge and Ypres before moving to Germany in 1846 and subsequently to California during the Gold Rush. He traveled extensively throughout the United States and painted in Cuba from about 1864 to 1868, gaining fame for his landscapes.  He became an American citizen in 1868, thereafter traveling again for several years before returning to San Francisco in 1879. He was active there until 1883, eventually moving back to Belgium where he died in 1901.  

His favored California subjects included Yosemite, the San Francisco Bay area, and the Monterey Peninsula. In Cypress Point, Monterey, the artist portrays the lone, iconic Cypress tree that stands on a hillside along the shore of the Monterey Peninsula between Cypress Point Club and the Pebble Beach Golf Links. The tree has been a popular subject among painters and photographers since the nineteenth century.