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William Adolphe Bouguereau. Franz von Lenbach. George Inness. Frederick Childe Hassam. The Shepherdess Countess Leoni Wedel, 1902. Goochland, West Virginia, 1884. Old House and Garden, (Gardeuse de moutons), 1881. Oil on cardboard, Oil on wood panel, East Hampton, Long Island, 1898. Oil on canvas, 46 x 28½ in. 44 3/8 x 33 5/8 in. 20 5/8 x 30 1/8 in. Oil on canvas, 24 5/8 x 20 in. Charles and Emma Frye Charles and Emma Frye Courtesy of Henry Art Gallery, Courtesy of Henry Art Gallery, Collection. Collection. University of Washington, Seattle, University of Washington, Seattle, Horace C. Henry Collection. Horace C. Henry Collection. William Adolphe Bouguereau. Franz von Stuck. Photo: Chris Eden Photo: Richard Nicol Child at Bath Sin, after 1906. (Petite fille assise au bord de Mixed media on fabric, l’eau), 1886. Oil on canvas, 34 7/8 x 21 5/8 in. 33 x 24 5/16 in. Charles and Emma Frye Courtesy of Henry Art Gallery, Collection. University of Washington, Seattle, Horace C. Henry Collection. Photo: Richard Nicol These are heady times for art collectors. With Society, which later founded the Seattle Art Dreaming the Emerald City: The Collections of in 1888, where they built their fortune in generation”—artists who maintained the HORACE C. HENRY Henry’s deep interest in nineteenth- and early Four exhibition mentioned by Richard Andrews auction houses regularly announcing record- Museum. As members (and eventually trustees) Charles and Emma Frye and Horace C. Henry agriculture, livestock, meat-packing, and real Munich Academy’s traditional teachings. Horace C. Henry was born in North twentieth-century American landscape paint- in his foreword, as well as German Expressionist breaking sales, commercial art fairs growing in of these seminal organizations, Charles Frye unites these foundational collections for the estate. Both Fryes were civic-minded; in addition On the other hand, Uhde and Symbolist Bennington, Vermont, where his family had ing was essential to his collecting choices. Paintings in Oil and Watercolor. Isaacs and early popularity, and a proliferation of new galleries, and Horace C. Henry donated funds to support first time. A select group of paintings and to his service on arts boards, Charles Frye was a Franz von Stuck had founded the Munich resided for five generations. Henry worked European artists had long been the focus of curators established the Henry’s mission to today’s hot art market shows no signs of exhibitions, lectures, and art instruction. Their archival materials documents the evolution trustee of the Seattle Pulmonary Hospital, and Secession, a younger, international group of as a contractor for the booming railroad American collections, but a number of significant exhibit contemporary art in a variety of media, cooling. Fortunately for American museums, most significant and lasting contributions to the of the collections from private to public both he and Emma hosted concerts for the artists committed to the cross-cultural industry, and his job took him throughout the sales and exhibitions at the turn of the century including design, architecture, and film. They many of today’s art collectors region, however, were their display and compares and contrasts the Seattle Music and Art Foundation. When their exchange of ideas, technical innovations, country, including to Seattle, where he settled (such as The American Fine Arts Society’s also recognized the importance of the museum’s have continued the philan- private collections. Over collecting interests of the Fryes and Henry. interests turned to building a private art and the embrace of a wide variety of modern with his wife and children in 1890. Here, in Comparative Exhibition of Native and Foreign Art in Founding Collection, but it was Gervais Reed, thropic tradition of sharing several decades, both the In addition to an interest in common genres collection, Charles and Emma were true partners. styles. Significantly, the Fryes’ interests did addition to working on railroad expansion, 1904) led to an increased market for American curator and assistant director throughout their acquisitions with the Fryes and Henry amassed or themes, including Romantic and Orientalist They traveled together to the 1893 World’s not extend to artwork by the subsequent he established diverse commercial interests in art. While many of the artists in Henry’s most of the 1950s and 1960s, who initiated public, either through hundreds of artworks, subjects, both the Fryes and Henry recognized Columbian Exposition in Chicago, where they generation of artists working in Munich, banking, insurance, and real-estate investment. collection were strongly influenced by the a lasting exhibition program that combined museum gifts, exhibition and each made structural the importance of European art, particularly acquired their first painting. In subsequent which included Wassily Kandinsky, Gabriele Henry was a great civic leader and booster Barbizon School and French Impressionism, collection-based and contemporary shows. loans, or the establishment additions to their homes, in that of France. As a result, a number of French decades, the Fryes made several trips to Europe, Münter, Paul Klee, and other members of the of the Northwest. Seattle’s Town Crier often their paintings have a distinctly American of private museums. Here in 1915 and 1917 respectively, artists are represented in both collections: often buying directly from artists in their studios. Blue Rider School, suggesting that the Fryes applauded the entrepreneur’s beneficent focus, as in George Inness’s Goochland, West Today, both the Henry and the Frye museums the Northwest, it is important to better display their Romanticist Eugène Isabey, landscape artists of During these trips, the Fryes worked closely preferred formal experimentation connected use of his wealth, noting his work with the Virginia (1884) and Childe Hassam’s Old House continue to honor their Founding Collections, Interior of the Charles and Emma Frye home, 1920s–30s. to note how our modern Photo: Unknown collections. The Fryes the Barbizon School such as Narcisse-Virgile with a select group of artist-advisers: Henry to figuration and traditional subject matter King County Anti-Tuberculosis League and Garden, East Hampton, Long Island (1898). often implementing innovative exhibition museum culture continues to sponsored charitable events Diaz de la Peña, and Academy favorite William Raschen and Eustace Paul Ziegler, who were, over avant-garde forays into abstraction. and his innovative social initiatives, such as These and other landscapes in the collection strategies. Approaches such as inviting artists reflect the passions and in their gallery and invited Adolphe Bouguereau. Yet these collectors’ true like the Fryes, of German descent, as well as money-saving incentives for local newsboys. are stylistically diverse, yet united by their to curate from the collections, or commissioning commitment of early arts friends and special groups passions lay elsewhere—the Fryes focused on Dutch artist Pieter van Veen. The Fryes’ In 1952, the Charles and Emma Frye Free reverence for natural settings untainted artists to create new artwork in response to benefactors and collectors. to view their collection. collecting German portraiture and genre scenes, collecting slowed in the early 1920s, but later Public Art Museum opened its doors to the Like the Fryes, Henry purchased his first by that era's rapid industrialization. the collections, provide visitors with fresh Henry, meanwhile, opened and Henry, on American landscape painting. in that decade, they purchased significant works public, due in large part to the tenacity of painting at the 1893 World’s Columbian approaches from which to view the familiar Charles and Emma Frye and his gallery to the public Dreaming the Emerald City reveals the acuity of from New York Philharmonic conductor Josef Walser Greathouse, executor of the Frye Exposition in Chicago. For Henry, however, In 1926 Henry donated 172 paintings—the artworks they have come to know and love. Horace C. Henry settled in two days a week. Both these collectors’ tastes, furthering appreciation Stránský’s renowned collection of German and Estate and first director of the Museum until collecting was a private endeavor; while his majority of his collection—to the University Seattle during a period of gestures demonstrated the for the Fryes’ and Henry’s largesse and their Austrian art, including Fritz von Uhde’s The his death in 1966. Greathouse augmented the wife Susan pursued other interests, he roamed of Washington, along with $100,000 to Robin Held Interior of the Henry home, circa 1913. University of rapid growth and invested Washington Libraries, Special Collections, UW27074. collectors’ shared desire commitment to the region’s artistic culture. Picture Book (1889). Founding Collection by acquiring many fine museums and galleries during business trips construct a public museum for their display. Chief Curator and Director of Exhibitions in a civic vision that includ- to contribute to Seattle’s examples of nineteenth- and early-twentieth to California and New York and cultural The Henry Art Gallery opened the following and Collections, Frye Art Museum ed dynamic programs in art, music, and theater. cultural fabric. Today, their collections serve CHARLES AND EMMA FRYE Reflecting an interest in their German heritage, century American art. With several galleries sojourns in Western Europe, Egypt, and East year, becoming Washington State’s first public art