California

In early 1906, author George Wharton James, whom Ahrens had met at Roycroft, commissioned him to paint the old Spanish missions for a proposed book. Ahrens, after having left his wife, Emily, was in desperate need of both money and a divorce, the latter of which only the “wronged party” could file in New York. California had much more lenient divorce laws, so Carl Ahrens and Martha “Madonna” Niles made their way west and presented themselves as husband and wife until they could legally marry.

With motor cars barred from the mountain roads, the pair travelled by covered wagon as far south as San Diego and then made their way north along the coast toward San Francisco. Madonna, raised in a comfortable middle-class family, faced a difficult change of circumstances while pregnant. According to her memoirs, Ahrens, an experienced camper, took on the responsibility of preparing all their meals and patiently taught her the practical survival skills of life on the road.

At the time of the 1906 earthquake, the pair were in Santa Barbara. While they certainly felt it, they did not encounter signs of devastation until they travelled farther north. The earthquake nearly bankrupted Ahrens’ patron. The intended book project had to be abandoned after only a few paintings were completed.