Victor Arnautoff (1896–1979) was recruited by archited Timothy Pflueger for the Life and Era of Washington frescos in the entry hall. The Ukrainian-born painter had mastered fresco (the exacting technique of painting directly on wet plaster) while working with Diego Rivera in Mexico. A leftist, Arnautoff had demonstrated his skill as the technical director for the Coit Tower murals, where he created City Life, and as the artist for the Presidio Chapel. The Life of Washington required a year to paint and covered 1,600 square feet. Arnautoff was assisted by Gordon Langdon (see Library Murals) and George Harris.

The murals were intended as a corrective to commonly used high school texts of the 1930s. Arnautoff did not show the usual scenes of Washington’s life (the cherry tree, crossing the Delaware, etc.) but instead focused on our first president as a surveyor and an officer in the French and Indian War, the manager of Mount Vernon, the leader of revolutionary troops, a trailblazer in recognizing the contribution of immigrants, and a mediator between Jefferson and Hamilton. For Arnautoff, Washington was a conflicted human being who grew in stature and understanding by working for the people. Indeed, everyday Americans are placed front and center throughout the paintings.

The Life of Washington is the largest fresco cycle by the artist to survive and a decisive link between the Mexican muralist movement and the Bay Area. S.F. Chronicle critic Alfred Frankenstein praised the portrayal of Washington as “the granite, laconic human being who fought a nation into existence on the edge of a wilderness.” The Life of Washington sets the stage for the murals decorating San Francisco today.

Arnautoff taught at Stanford from 1938 to 1962. He continued his activism; his lithograph criticizing Vice President Nixon made the cover of The Nation and earned him the wrath of J. Edgar Hoover. After the death of his first wife, he remarried, returned to the USSR and produced large-scale mosaics in Mariupol, which have most likely been destroyed in the Russian siege of the city in 2022. 

The muralist is the subject of Prof. Robert Cherny’s 2017 book Victor Arnautoff and the Politics of Art. The Smithsonian Institution’s Archives of American Art holds his personal papers.