This is a 29"x41" watercolor of Ross Alley in San Francisco Chinatown ca. 1896. This painting was based on a series of photographs taken by famous San Francisco photographer Arnold Genthe who devoted his spare time out of his studio to documenting the Chinese of San Francisco. I had the help from the Occidental College history department and Dr. Chang who was of great assistance in helping me with the Chinese in the banners at the right of the painting. To the lower left of the banners is a basement establishment with Chinese over the door. This was a Chinese fast food take out restaurant that are the basis of the Chinese cuisine and the fast food places of today. In the center of the alley dressed in a bloe frock and being tailed by a thuggish looking character is an actual portrait of one of the heads of the San Francisco Triad gangs of in tha late 19th Century and his body gaurd.