[SML] Homeless German scenic artists?

[Jeff Forbes]

So I was reading this article about homeless tent cities in San Francisco

 ( http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/17/opinion/sunday/the-tent-cities-of-san-francisco.html?&moduleDetail=section-news-5&action=click&contentCollection=Opinion&region=Footer&module=MoreInSection&version=WhatsNext&contentID=WhatsNext&pgtype=article)

when this sentence caught my attention:

"As The San Francisco Chronicle reported in October, the South of Market district favored by tech firms like Mr. Keller’s has been a gathering place for the homeless since at least 1872, when an observer noted the concentration of “blanket men” who seemed to be mostly “runaway sailors,” “old soldiers” and “bankrupt German scene painters.”

Are they referring to theatrical scene painters or maybe landscape painters? One could read it either way I think. Were there a lot of German scenic artists in SF in the 1800s?

J