Updated:
July 20, 2007
 approximately 250 paintings are contained within the collections of the Mission Inn. Mission Inn owner Frank Miller commissioned some of the paintings for display within the hotel. Spanish and Mexican Colonial paintings in the collections provide a sense of the California missions. There are other paintings depicting California landscapes, including desert, coastal, and mountain scenes. There are three paintings in the collections by Russian artists, each extremely different. The paintings are: “Charge Up San Juan Hill” with the future President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt leading his Rough Riders, by Vasili V. Vereschagin, the Biblical story of the Good Samaritan by N. A. Kosscheloff and full portrait titled “Madame K” or “Portrait ofCountess Katherine Kovoss” by Ilja Repin.
In 1904, over 600 paintings, sculptures, photographs, and other Russian art objects were sent to the United States for display at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition held in St. Louis. This was at the time of the Russo-Japanese War. The artworks were not returned to Russia. Instead, collectors in the United States acquired them. Eventually Frank Miller purchased the three paintings from the estate of another collector. Miller also bought the “California Alps” by William Keith at the same estate sale. |
