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 , Courtesy of Henry Art Gallery, Collection. Collection. University of , , 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 In the early twentieth century, the main arts as the foundations for two of the region’s Charles Frye and Emma Lamp were both the Fryes’ collection centers on two generations devoted to its permanent display, the Founding Asia. Henry purchased the vast majority museum. During his first year as director, Walter organizations in Seattle were the Washington most important public art museums: the Frye first-generation Americans of German descent. of Munich artists. Franz von Lenbach, portraitist Collection remains an integral part of the Frye of his artwork from New York dealers such Isaacs (himself an artist) brought vital modernist State Arts Association and the Seattle Fine Arts Art Museum and the Henry Art Gallery. Born in Iowa, they ultimately settled in Seattle of the German elite, was among the “father Art Museum’s identity. as W. H. Drant and Macbeth Galleries. exhibitions to the museum, such as the Blue Exterior of the Henry Art Gallery, 1997. Photo: J.F. Housel Dreaming Exterior of the Frye Art Museum, 1996. Photo: Pete Eckert The University of Washington archives hold a rather staged, 1926 photograph Dreaming the Emerald City: The Collections of Charles and Emma Frye and of Horace C. Henry and UW president Dr. Henry Suzzallo taken as they tucked Horace C. Henry is a ground-breaking exhibition for the Frye Art Museum. a course of mortar on the cornerstone of the Henry Art Gallery.

In that photograph, Henry looks dapper, I realize that outside For additional information on Dreaming the Emerald City: The Collections of Charles and This exhibition is the first manifestation of a opened to friends and special groups, and dressed in an overcoat and suit, while a young exhibits are of vital Emma Frye and Horace C. Henry, including the exhibition checklist and a full listing the recent Board of Trustees resolution to allow for charitable events. They also surrounded girl peers over his right shoulder, witnessing the importance to the of associated programs, please visit www.fryemuseum.org. loaned artworks to be presented with the Museum’s themselves with artists, forging important debut of Washington State’s first art museum. future of the artistic Founding Collection. The decision to exhibit relationships between artists and their publics— Henry’s donation of construction funds as well movement in the those paintings acquired by Charles and Emma a philosophy that continues at the Museum to as his art collection reflected a strong desire to Northwest.” The This exhibition benefited from the expertise of key staff at both the Frye Art Museum Frye during their lifetime with other art will this day. In recent years, the Frye Art Museum increase public interest in the arts. Henry Art Gallery’s and Henry Art Gallery. The Frye Art Museum would like to thank Frye staff members expand our exhibition program, further new has reaffirmed its commitment to both living first traveling show, Donna Kovalenko, curator of collections; David Andersen, former exhibition designer; scholarship, and broaden interpretation of this artists and its Founding Collection through Henry was committed to numerous public presenting works by Laura Landau, curatorial manager; and Annabelle Larner, exhibitions registrar. From unique Collection. Dreaming the Emerald City, exhibitions, education programs, and publica- Horace C. Henry, not dated. Courtesy of concerns, such as health care, education, and the German Museum of History & Industry, Seattle, the Henry, special thanks go to Elizabeth Brown, curator of collections and director The Collections of Charles and Emma Frye and Horace C. Henry which features selections from the Frye and tions presenting diverse interpretations and SHS 10412-A. Emerald employment, that affected citizens’ quality of Expressionist Blue of exhibitions; Judy Sourakli, curator of collections; and Sallie-Jo Wall, registrar. Henry Collections, thus represents an auspicious perspectives on Collection paintings by visual life. He firmly believed in the power of art to Four group created The Frye is especially grateful to Frye Curatorial Research Associate Nancy Stoaks beginning. Moreover it provides an opportunity artists, writers, and dancers. This interdisciplinary serve the public good. In 1917 he built an quite a stir in the community and established for her invaluable research on both collections. to honor two of Seattle’s pioneering arts supporters approach is reminiscent of Charles and Emma annex to his Capitol Hill home to display his a pattern of adventurous exhibitions of contem- who envisioned the legacies we now enjoy as Frye’s appreciation of all the arts. art collection, establishing Seattle’s first public porary art interwoven with selections from the the Henry Art Gallery and the Frye Art Museum. gallery. After giving his collection to the Permanent Collection. As Seattle celebrates a renaissance in the University of Washington, Henry opened his In 1915 Charles and Emma Frye established visual arts with the recent home gallery for use by the Seattle Fine Arts The Henry Art Gallery has grown considerably a private art gallery in their home, which they expansion and Olympic Sculpture Park Society, the organization that would found the since its founding, as has Seattle. In 2007 the opening, Dreaming the Emerald City reminds us Seattle Art Museum in 1933. Henry celebrated its eightieth anniversary as a on whose shoulders the present generation leading center for contemporary art. During those City of benefactors stands. I know I speak for all Henry was both a generous donor and a model eight decades a diverse ecology of art museums Frye Art Museum members of the Frye staff and Board of Trustees arts patron, attaching no strings to his gift. A has emerged in the city, including the Frye, in saying it has been a privilege to learn more tentative request by Gallery personnel to Seattle Art Museum, and Wing Luke Museum, 704 Terry Avenue, Seattle, WA 98104 Frye Art Museum about these landmark arts patrons and their replace the Founding Art Collection with a each the result of the inspiration and generosity (206) 622-9250 collections, and to share this unique exhibition traveling exhibition brought this response in of our civic leaders and citizens. www.fryemuseum.org November 3, 2007–April 6, 2008 with our city. 1928: “I gave the Gallery and Paintings outright Charles Frye, 1930s. to the University and have not a word to say Richard Andrews Photo: Grady Midge Bowman about the way they are handled. Director, Henry Art Gallery Executive Director, Frye Art Museum Emma Frye in her First Hill home, 1920s–30s. Cover background graphic: The Seattle Sunday Times, Social Section, April 29, 1917. Photo: Unknown