Here’s another beautiful painting by Michel Kady on the cover of a Southern Pacific menu. We’ve previously seen five others, all of which can be accessed on the SP menu series page. All of these menus were used for tour groups, in this an American Legion trip from Los Angeles to Portland, where that group was holding its annual convention.

Click image to download a 470-KB PDF of this menu.

Crater Lake is a beautiful place, but you rarely see photos showing the entire lake because the views from the rim are so close to the lake that getting the entire lake in one photo requires either a panoramic camera or an extremely wide angle lens. That shouldn’t be a problem for a painter, and the fact that this painting only shows a part of the lake reveals that Kady never actually went there and instead was painting from a photograph.

Click image for a larger view. Photo from Seven Wonders of Oregon, by Timothy Krause.

The island in the painting is called Wizard Island and the high point behind it is called Llao Rock. That means the photo was taken from or near Crater Lake Lodge. Fortunately, panoramic cameras (or software) are a lot more accessible today than they were in 1932, and the above shows a view of almost the entire lake from nearly the same spot.

The view is looking north on the west rim of the lake, The photo suggests that the orange coloring of the cliff faces in Kady’s painting is somewhat exaggerated, even if the painting was supposed to represent sunrise. Nevertheless, Kady’s paintings were a great advertisement for destinations along the Southern Pacific.