Pomo culture at heart of DeYoung Museum’s Jules Tavernier exhibit

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There were few visitors in the small gallery that housed the “Jules Tavernier and the Elem Pomo” exhibit at the DeYoung Museum when an unexpected, haunting melody pierced the quiet of the room.

The clear notes of a Pomo call to dance filled the space where oil paintings by French-born landscape master Tavernier overlooked display cases filled with baskets and ceremonial artifacts created by Pomo artists from past and present Lake, Mendocino and Sonoma counties.

The exhibit, which originated in August 2021 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, was on display in San Francisco from Dec. 18 through Easter, April 17.

Central to the exhibit is Tavernier’s 1878 painting, “Dance in a Subterranean Roundhouse at Clear Lake, California,” which provides the connection to the Elem Pomo. It depicts a ceremonial dance known as Mfom xe, or people dance, in an underground roundhouse on Elem Pomo land near what is now Clearlake Oaks.

The roundhouse in Tavernier’s painting is similar to one on the same site today, which is still in use by the community.

Jules Tavernier's career masterwork, "Dance in a Subterranean Roundhouse at Clear Lake, California," was called "by far the most remarkable picture ever painted on the Pacific Coast" by a San Francisco newspaper upon its completion in 1878. It returned to California for the first time in 140 years as the centerpiece of the DeYoung Museum's "Jules Tavernier and the Elem Pomo" exhibit at the DeYoung Museum. Photo by Esther Oertel April 16, 2022.

The painting was privately owned in Europe until its purchase by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2016. Its display at the DeYoung Museum in San Francisco represents the return of the painting to California for the first time in 140 years.

The composition is considered Tavernier’s masterwork and was quite possibly his most important commission. The request came from Mexican-born Tiburcio Parrott y Ochoa, a patron of Tavernier and a leading banker in 1870s San Francisco, where Tavernier lived at the time.

Parrott was the owner of the Sulphur Bank Quicksilver Mining Co., which operated on Elem ancestral lands. The work of art was to be a gift to his Parisian business partner, Baron Edmond de Rothschild.

It took the artist a full two years to complete the painting, and he made numerous trips to the Elem Pomo Indian village at Clear Lake during this time for research and inspiration.

There are more than 100 figures featured in the painting, mainly the multi-generation Pomo community members taking part in the ceremony. The painting also includes three non-Indigenous visitors: Parrott, Rothschild and a French military officer who was traveling with Rothschild.

This ceremonial man's headdress features crow feathers and was made in 2020 by Elem Pomo artist Robert Joseph Geary. It was displayed at the DeYoung Museum in San Francisco from December 2021 through April 2022 as part of the "Jules Tavernier and the Elem Pomo" exhibit. Photo by Esther Oertel.

The dance so beautifully and intimately depicted in the work was performed to protect the people from the destruction and diseases brought by new settlers, a cruel irony, as the mine owned by Parrott spawned widespread mercury contamination in the lake, causing great damage to the Elem Pomo community.

An area comprising 160 acres on Clear Lake is still affected by the historic contamination. It was designated an Environmental Protection Agency Superfund Site in 1990 and eight short-term cleanup projects have been performed to date. Even so, continued work to clean up and restore the area is necessary.

To put the Tavernier painting in context, the exhibition also included more than 40 pieces of Pomo baskets and regalia.

It was the old-style Pomo feathered dance cape and headband on display that inspired Daisyetta Smith, a college student from Eureka, to sing in the exhibit room in the Kashaya Pomo language.

A Pomo dance cape and dance headband were featured in the "Jules Tavernier and the Elem Pomo" exhibit at the DeYoung Museum in San Francisco from December 2021 through April 2022. Old-style feather dance capes like this one made by a Northern California Pomo artist were typically tied under the arms of a male dancer and hung down the back. The two central male dancers in Jules Tavernier's "Dance in a Subterranean Roundhouse at Clear Lake, California" are wearing shorter, wispier versions of regalia such as this. The dance headband by a Mendocino County Pomo artist is circa 1900 and features feathers from a red-shafted flicker and California quail. The two central male dancers in Tavernier's painting wear headbands such as this while blowing into bird bone whistles. Photo by Esther Oertel.

Smith, who has Kashaya Pomo and Yurok lineage, explained that the sadness she experienced when seeing the pieces dormant, rather than being used for their intended purpose, engendered the soul-stirring, extemporaneous chant.

Smith traveled more than 250 miles to view the exhibit.

A short documentary film created for the exhibit played on a loop at the entrance to introduce visitors to the Indigenous context of Tavernier’s painting, its roundhouse and the importance of the environment to Pomo basketry.

Elem cultural leader and regalia maker Robert Geary, Dry Creek Pomo scholar Sherrie Smith-Ferri, PhD, and Eastern Pomo artist and curator Meyo Marrufo are co-presenters of the exhibit and are featured in the documentary. The informative film featuring these local leaders can be viewed on YouTube below.

These miniature and micro-miniature baskets were made by Northern California Pomo artists, including Joseppa Pinto Dick (Yokayo Pomo, 1862-1905) and Mary Knight Benson (Yokayo Pomo, 1878-1930). Such small baskets were often hung from the basket hoop of a baby's cradle, along with other objects, to engage the baby's attention.

The exquisitely crafted historic Pomo baskets on display, as well as the equally magnificent baskets made by current weavers Clint McKay, Corine Pearce and Susan Billy reflect the evolution of Pomo basketry through each generation.

Pomo baskets were used in all aspects of daily life and are world-renowned for their high level of artistry, technical virtuosity, the diversity of materials employed, and their sheer beauty.

In addition to his “Dance in a Subterranean Roundhouse at Clear Lake, California,” other paintings done by Tavernier in the western United States were on display, including depictions of Yosemite, Hawaiian volcanoes, and outdoor scenes in Nebraska and Wyoming.

Esther Oertel is a freelance writer in Middletown who's contributed to Lake County News since 2010. She especially enjoys writing about the people and places that make Lake County unique. For comments, questions and story suggestions, she may be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
This close lattice-twined basket is circa 1890 and is attributed to Jennie (Polly) Miller (Potter Valley, Mendocino County, California, 1842-1932). It was made using a complicated and technically challenging technique that produces a strong yet lightweight vessel capable of holding a large quantity of foodstuffs, such as acorns. The deliberate break in the pattern is characteristic of Pomo basketry, providing the basket's spirit with an opening to enter or exit. Lack of one was thought to bring misfortune or ill health to the weaver. DeYoung Museum, San Francisco, "Jules Tavernier and the Elem Pomo," April 16, 2022. Photo by Esther Oertel.


These miniature one-rod coiled beaded baskets were made in 2020 by Corine Pearce (Little River Band of Pomo Indians, Redwood Valley, Mendocino County, Calif). They feature willow shoots, sedge root, and glass beads. DeYoung Museum, San Francisco, "Jules Tavernier and the Elem Pomo," April 16, 2022. Photo by Esther Oertel.

This doll's cradle basket of willow shoots and a dogwood hoop was made in 2020 by Corine Pearce of the Little River Band of Pomo Indians in Redwood Valley, Calif. Note the miniature basket hanging from the hoop, circa 1900, which serves as a cradle basket toy. The doll was made in 2020 by Meyo Marrufo of the Robinson Rancheria, Lake County, Calif. DeYoung Museum, Jules Tavernier and the Elem Pomo exhibit, April 16, 2022. Photo by Esther Oertel.