George Horsfall never met the painter Paul Madonna, and does not know that Madonna ever painted Horsfall’s house, which is 712 Steiner St., a bright blue Queen Anne Victorian, in a row of many tearful houses with painted ladies. The name is known. Alamo Square.
But when Horsfall heard that Madonna was in the intensive care ward at San Francisco General Hospital with internal injuries after a fatal car wreck, he organized a benefit home tour with his painted wife to pay tribute to Madonna. Help pay for medical needs. Without hesitation or prompting, he did this on four days’ notice to show how much the artist means to those who appreciate the visual aesthetics of San Francisco, and the way he captures the Madonna with simple beauty.
“Paul has the ability to take something you’ve seen a million times and add something completely fresh that you’ve never seen before,” said Horsfall, whose family dates back to Gold in San Francisco. . “He can take something that’s old and boring and make it his own. I consider him a treasure of the city.”
Horsfall House is also a treasure. Built in 1894, it is the most secure of the seven houses on Colored Women’s Row, and she gives tours every day at 4pm to all who gather in front.
“I don’t publicize it,” said Horsfall, who can walk up to his front door and find five to 20 people waiting. He charges $20 for an hour’s walk through three floors of history and artifacts dating back to his family’s arrival in September 1849.
To publicize Sunday’s tour, Shelley Irwin drove her 1963 VW flower truck from Santa Cruz and helped arrange flowers for the 712 Steiner front porch from her business, Olive + Coyote.
“It’s amazing what she does,” she said of Madonna. “His art is very detailed and fascinating.”
Most people were introduced to Madonna through the weekly episodes of All Over Coffee, a single urban portrait that ran in the Chronicle’s Sunday issue for 12 years – a linear portrait of the side of city life that residents cared about. Fails to capture or adequately define. . After the feature ended, he continued to illustrate books, contributing to five titles, most recently Ghosts of San Francisco, published in 2020 in collaboration with historian Gary Kamiya. , which writes the portal of the chronicle of the arrow column.
Madonna’s surprise production was thrown into chaos on November 6 when he was on his way home from the studio to meet his wife. A Mercedes-Benz was traveling in the wrong lane at McLaren Park at 65mph. The driver of the Mercedes fled on foot and no arrests have been made. Madonna, 50, was rushed to hospital by ambulance to undergo a four-hour operation on her liver and testicles. He is expected to recover, but it will be slow and expensive.
The money from Sunday’s benefit tour may not be far off, but the goodwill at this point in Madonna’s recovery means a lot, and it means a lot to her fans to be able to contribute to her recovery a little. Help fashion.
Jocelyn Coombs and Marcia Perry drove from Coal Valley to Alamo Square and were among those waiting on the sidewalk when Horsfall pulled out onto the sidewalk to begin his journey.
“We came because of Paul,” said Coombs, who has a pen-and-ink sketch of Madonna in the Pacific Telephone building, where her father once worked. “Paul’s art is very present,” she said, “it’s incredibly detailed but very sweet.”
In the end, the turnout for Sunday’s benefit tour was less than Horsfall might have hoped for, but those who came paid twice as much. Horsfall plans to do it again on November 27 and draw more people to the benefit with advance notice. And when his guests were at the door, he didn’t mention Madonna or the benefit. As sad as it is, it had nothing to do with the Victorian age that Horsfall used to invite his guests when they stopped in the parlor after removing their shoes at his request.
“The stuff inside this house represents my family’s 170 years in San Francisco,” he said, beginning the tour, which ran through three floors and 10 rooms.
But the tragedy was not far from Amina Durrani’s mind. As she put on her shoes at the end of the tour, she said, “I was really scared about the accident, and the fact that the person who hit him still kills me. I’m a fan of Paul. And it really hurt me to hear that.
Sam Whiting is a staff writer for the San Francisco Chronicle. Email: [email protected]
