Keith 's San Francisco studio was destroyed as a result of the fires following the 1906 San Francisco earthquake , which resulted in the loss of many paintings , with some accounts placing the number at several thousand . Keith , who was working primarily from his Berkeley studio-home , promised to replace all of the lost paintings despite his declining health . He remained a revered but reclusive figure in the large Berkeley art colony and refused to participate in the founding of the Berkeley Art Association in 1907 . He consistently contributed paintings to the colony 's exhibitions between 1906 and 1911 . In the summer of 1906 he briefly appeared in public to support Harry W. Seawell , a drawing instructor at the University of California , in what became an embarrassing scandal . When the University forbade Seawell from using nude models in his life classes , Keith published a blunt declaration of support in the local press , proclaiming that the nude model is " essential to real art . " Keith did not entirely abandon realistic depictions of mountain scenery . In October 1907 , accompanied by Muir , Keith visited and painted the Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park , soon to be dammed to create a reservoir to provide water and power for San Francisco . Linnie Marsh Wolfe wrote that Keith " left behind all his synthetics of the last twenty-five years and humbly , reverently portrayed what he saw , as objectively as in the seventies when Muir first infused into him his own spirit and vision . " Keith expressed great annoyance with the many high-quality forgeries of his work on the San Francisco market
1906 San Francisco earthquake
1906 San Francisco earthquake
William Keith (artist)