Stackpole worked as a laborer early in life to support himself and his mother following the death of his father in a lumber mill circular saw accident . At sixteen , he came to San Francisco to study at the California School of Design beginning in 1903 ; he was influenced strongly by Arthur Frank Mathews , muralist and painter at the school . He met painter Helen Arnstein ( later Helen Salz ) while both were teenagers , and she became his first girlfriend . Arnstein , the daughter of wealthy Jewish art lovers and one year Stackpole 's senior , described him as " a remarkable draftsman " who painted and sketched constantly . She was less impressed with his sense of color than with his precision in line . Stackpole polished his craft by working with artists at the Montgomery Block , playfully called " Monkey Block " , a bohemian hangout which included studios for painting and sculpture . After the 1906 San Francisco earthquake , he used a grant of 200 ( $ in current value ) to travel to France to attend the École des Beaux-Arts in the class of Antonin Mercié in 1906 – 1908 , exhibiting at the Salon in 1910 . It was in Paris that he became friends with painter Diego Rivera He painted under Robert Henri in New York in 1911
1906 San Francisco earthquake
1906 San Francisco earthquake
Ralph Stackpole