The painting restoration fund raising effort was put over the top by employees of Sonoma County's Health Services Department, who contributed a total of $680. A ceremony was held 22 August 2005, in the Health Services offices. Director Rita Scardaci gives Jeremy Nichols a giant check in front of the painting as well as putting the actual checks and cash into our famous donation jar.

Eugene Pierrot, artist, soldier, and teacher. Pierrot, who emigrated from France to America in 1850, served in the 4th Texas Mounted Infantry during the Civil War. He later became an artist and teacher; some of his works hang in a museum in Fort Worth. Pierrot moved to California, where he painted Sonoma County Hospital in 1896.

Eugene Pierrot died in 1919, ironically in the same hospital building that he painted. He was buried in the Odd Fellows Cemetery thanks to the generosity of his landlord, who paid for the plot. The unmarked grave was discovered 86 years later during research into the provenance of the painting. With the assistance of Santa Rosa Memorial Park, a tombstone was ordered from the U.S. Veteran's Administration. The stone was installed at no charge by SRMP, as their contribution to the project.

(Click on each image below to see enlargement.)