Archival and Ephemeral Material

Note the subject is the same Ark as seen in Widforss' painting Ark in the Oakland Estuary (616).

Albert Thomas DeRome was the sales manager for the George Hass and Sons company, which produced chocolate and other sweets in San Francisco. He was an amateur painter and he and Gunnar Widforss often painted together. They were close friends before  a falling out in the late 1920s. On occasion, Derome would lend money to Widforss and it seems likely that this was a source of friction. Additionally, Derome’s wife, Martha, didn’t like Widforss. In September 1921, Derome and Widforss went on a month-long road trip in northern California. When he retired from business as the result of health issues stemming from a serious automobile accident, Derome took up painting full time.