Jordan Mattox

The painting above was done by Addie Ballou in 1879 of a man who went by the name Emperor Norton. Ballou was an artist, spiritualist, writer, philanthropist and more. She studied painting at the San Francisco School of Design, which is now the Art Institute, where she learned from Virgil Macey Williams, the then director. Ballou completed many famous portraits, including Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, and many others. The portrait above is of a man named Emperor Norton, who was a San Francisco businessman who lost his wealth betting on food commodity prices and then declared himself Emperor of the United States, one of the many fascinating characters to emerge from San Francisco.