Jorgensen met his future mentor Virgil Williams shortly before the San Francisco School of Design opened in February 1874.

Williams, the director of this academy, spotted the young fourteen-year-old Jorgensen sketching near his residence in the city and invited him to be the first free student.

As Williams had been exposed to French and Italian methods of painting in his travels abroad, he emphasized the importance of regular exhibition to the young Jorgensen.

Influenced by the travels of Thomas Hill, Virgil Williams and Albert Bierstadt, Jorgensen decided to visit the famed Yosemite Valley in 1898.

Not only did the commission wish to promote Yosemite's beauty by having a popular artist in residence, but they also had the intention of eventually taking over use of the structure when Jorgensen's lease expired.

[1]: 7 [7] In 1917 when the Jorgensens left Yosemite, they decided to live permanently in Piedmont, California, in order to remain closer to the Ghirardelli family.

His style of careful delineation in the foreground and distinct foggy washes in the horizon appears charming in a transparent medium but more primitive in heavier oils.