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Link to Previous Shows:

Lon Megargee, 2008/2009
Carl Sammons, 2009
Edward S. Curtis, 2009
Mendocino Landscapes, 2009/2010
Maynard Dixon's West, 2010
A California Indian Feast, 2010
California Indian Basketry, 2010/2011
Stories of Home, 2011
Current Exhibit, 2011, 2012

Link to all GHM Exhibits
prior to 2009

July 2 - September 25, 2011

William F. Jackson "Soda Springs"

22 x 36 inches, signed and dated ’85 at lower right, oil on canvas.

Collection of Kathy and Roger Carter

William F. Jackson came to California as a thirteen year old in 1863, crossing the plains in a covered wagon. His family settled in Sacramento, but young Will’s talent for art led to his enrollment in the California School of Design in San Francisco, where he won a silver medal for draftsmanship in 1875. Upon graduation, he launched into a career as an easel painter, painting both portraits and landscapes. In the 1880s and after, he went on sketching tours in the Sierra Nevada near Soda Springs and Donner Lake. In 1885, he was considered to be the best art authority in Sacramento, and Margaret Crocker asked him to be the first curator of her new museum, the E.B. Crocker Art Gallery. Jackson offered to take the position for one year, because his ambitions were to establish himself as an important exhibiting artist, not a museum employee. At the end of the year, he tried to resign, but was talked into staying on one more year. Forty-nine years later, he was still on the job. He became director of the museum-based art school, the Sacramento School of Design, while continuing on as a landscape painter of solid reputation. In the early twentieth century, Jackson brightened his palette and became renowned for his transcriptions of California springtime scenery, replete with vivid orange poppies. The San Francisco Call noted that “Jackson has claimed the state flower to be his very own and has proceeded to make good that claim by his absolute mastery of the subject.” (January 22, 1911).

William F. Jackson "Mt. St. Helena, Poppies and Lupine"

14 1/8 x 18 1/8 inches, signed at lower right, titled on reverse, oil on canvas.

Collection of Kathy and Roger Carter

Many of the paintings in this exhibition were owned until recently by Jackson’s descendants, and one of the landscapes from the Crocker Art Museum’s collection is being exhibited for the first time since Jackson’s death, having been cleaned and framed earlier this year. The exhibit has been curated and organized by Alfred C. Harrison, Jr., President, The North Point Gallery in San Francisco.

Grace Carpenter Hudson "Path through Batimma"

8 1/4 x 8 5/8 inches, no date, oil on canvas mounted on board.

Collection of the Grace Hudson Museum

Gift of Peter and Donna Schoeningh in memory of Naomi G. Burnett Schoeningh

Grace Carpenter Hudson (1865–1937) is nationally known for her unique sympathetic depictions of the local Pomo Indians. Grace considered her detailed oil portraits her professional work and kept a painting diary with numbers assigned to each painting. Her numbered Pomo portraits still bring handsome prices in today’s art market.

There is, however, another body of work that Grace produced but did not sign, market or document during her lifetime. These are the landscape sketches Grace drew and painted starting as a young teen and continuing throughout her life. These small works, primarily in watercolor and oil, seem to be almost exclusively executed outside from direct observation following the French “en plein air” example. When Grace Carpenter entered the San Francisco School of Design, producing a landscape work entirely outside was the new approach being taught due to the influence of French Barbizon Painting. Artists working in this new quicker method used a looser brushstroke and minimized detail as opposed to previous, precise studio pieces worked up from on-site studies. From the Barbizon influence a new American style developed called Tonalism, which incorporated plein air painting, a muted palette based on plant, earth, and grayed atmospheric colors, and an emphasis on landscape images that were either devoid of human habitation or feature figures in dramatic isolation. These early artistic influences stayed with Grace Hudson throughout her career. Unlike many other artists, such as William F. Jackson, she was not very influenced by the new Impressionists’ use of bold color.

Grace Carpenter Hudson "Riverbank"

9 3/4 x 8 1/4 inches, no date, oil on board

Collection of the Grace Hudson Museum

Gift of Peter and Donna Schoeningh in memory of Naomi G. Burnett Schoeningh, Accession No. 1999-2-20

The Landscape Sketches of Grace Carpenter Hudson explores Grace’s landscape paintings and drawings in the Museum’s collection. The earliest oil painting dates from 1880. The watercolors are also early and document local trips in the 1880s. The several drawings probably date from the 1890s when Grace was creating illustrations for articles on Mendocino County. The predominant media is oil on cardboard or canvas. Of these, ones that contained meadows, hills, or river views, were used as studies for nature backgrounds in her Pomo portraits. The finished backgrounds retain the same loose rendition and muted palette of the landscape sketches, which by contrast directs our attention to the highly detailed and more colorful subject of the portrait. In other works she chooses quiet peaceful simple compositions: a rustic well, ferns by a pool, a path in the woods, or a solitary tree -- all intimate meditative moments in nature.

After her death, many of the paintings were signed with an estate signature and sold over the years by her heirs, Mark and Melissa Carpenter. However, in an effort to relate the landscapes to Grace’s Native American works, the Carpenters went a step beyond propriety and had small Pomo artifacts and even individual figures added to many of the works by Grace’s artist friend, Gene Warfield of Healdsburg. Most of the watercolors were signed, titled, and dated by Grace but little is known concerning the oils. The descriptive titles that many of these landscapes have today have come from collectors, galleries, or occasionally Museum staff.

Marvin Schenck, Curator
Grace Hudson Museum and Sun House

Call the Museum, (707) 467-2836, for further information. Group and School Tours are available by advance arrangement.

Lecture and Opening Reception: Saturday, July 2, 2 - 4:30 p.m. Free.

Starting at 2 p.m. will be a slide lecture, "The Art of William F. Jackson", by Alfred C. Harrison, Jr., President of The North Point Gallery, San Francisco and Exhibition Curator. Following the lecture, refreshments will be served. Mr. Harrison will also be available to sign catalogues.

Docent and Member Tour: Tuesday, July 5, Noon - 1 p.m., Free.

Join Marvin Schenck, Curator of the Museum, for a tour of both exhibitions.

Plein Air Landscape Class: Saturday, August 20, 9:30 a.m. ­ 5:00 p.m.

Learn how to better portray California landscape on site with artist Warren Dreher, guest instructor (back by popular demand). The class fee is $50 with limited enrollment. Call for more information.

Public Tour: Sunday, September 25, 2 p.m. Free.

Join Marvin Schenck, Curator of the Museum, for a tour of both exhibitions on the closing day.

These exhibitions were funded by The Sun House Guild and the Kathleen Kohn Fetzer Family Foundation. The Grace Hudson Museum is a division of the Department of Community Services, City of Ukiah.

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Link to previous exhibits:
Lon Megargee: Legendary Prints of the Southwest, 2008/2009
Carl Sammons: California Impressionist Landscapes from the Donna Walsh Sumner Collection, 2009
Edward S. Curtis Refocused, 2009
Through the Viewfinder: Mendocino Landscapes, 2009/2010
Space, Silence, Spirit: Maynard Dixon's West, 2010
Seaweed, Salmon, and Manzanita Cider: A California Indian Feast, 2010
American Masterpieces: The Aristic Legacy of California Indian Basketry, 2010/2011
Look at Who We Are: Stories of Home, 2011
Current Exhibit, 2011, 2012

Link to all GHM Exhibits prior to 2009

Grace Hudson Museum - 431 S. Main Ukiah, CA - 95482 - 707.467.2836