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Founding Collection

The Founding Collection reflects the distinctive vision of museum founders Charles and Emma Frye and celebrates late-nineteenth and early-twentieth-century European and American art. The children of German immigrants, the Fryes became prominent business leaders and patrons of the arts after settling in Seattle in 1888. Their collection of 232 oil paintings, almost half of which features German artists, was formed during the years around 1900. Charles and Emma Frye developed their passion for art at the Columbian Exposition, a world's fair held in Chicago in 1893. The experience had a great influence on the painterly subjects and artists the couple would collect in years to come. Over the next four decades, the Fryes acquired paintings while traveling abroad in Europe and from auctions, most notably those of American collections formed by Hugo Reisinger and Josef Stránský. The Fryes famously hung their paintings floor to ceiling, salon style, in a specially built gallery space attached to their home on First Hill. Beyond Germany, the Fryes collected works by artists from Austria, Denmark, England, France, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Russia, and the United States. Highlights include works by two generations of artists from Munich—those of the Münchener Künstlergenossenschaft (Munich Artist’s Association) such as Franz von Defregger, Franz von Lenbach, Wilhelm Leibl, and Friedrich August von Kaulbach—and artists who formed the Munich Secession including Ludwig Dill, Hugo von Habermann, Otto Hierl-Deronco, Franz von Stuck, Wilhelm Trübner, Fritz von Uhde, and Heinrich von Zügel. Other notable works include paintings by Eugène Boudin, William-Adolphe Bouguereau, Lillian Genth, Gabriel von Max, and Mihály de Munkácsy. The Founding Collection continues to serve as a catalyst for artistic inquiry at the Frye Art Museum in exhibitions that reframe its works and history through a lens of contemporary scholarship.

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Title Artist Medium Date
Waterfall   Trotter, Hortense   Oil on canvas  1896 
Drei Tannen in Schloss Hemsbach (Three Fir Trees at Castle Hemsbach)   Trübner, Wilhelm   Oil on canvas  1904 
Das Bilderbuch I (Picture Book I)   Uhde, Fritz von   Oil on canvas  1889 
The Musical Cavalier   Uhde, Fritz von   Oil on panel  1877 
Weib, warum weinest du? (Woman, Why Weepest Thou?)   Uhde, Fritz von   Oil on canvas  1892-94 
The Grand Canal, Venice   Unterberger, Franz   Oil on canvas  1890s 
In the Marshes   van Marcke de Lummen, Emile   Oil on canvas  ca. 1880 
First Snow   van Veen, Pieter   Oil on canvas  ca. 1914 
Saplings by the River   van Veen, Pieter   Oil on linen  1921 
The Willows   van Veen, Pieter   Oil on canvas  1918 
Study for Cattle on the Shore   Voltz, Johann Friedrich   Oil on panel  ca. 1883 
Evening by Moorland Stream, Loch Lyon, Perthshire   Watson Junior, William   Oil on canvas  1910 
Morning on the Hills of Loch Eilt, Invernesshire   Watson Junior, William   Oil on canvas  1909 
Morning on the Hills, Loch Tay, Perthshire   Watson Junior, William   Oil on canvas  1910 
Head of a Girl in Folk Costume   Weber, Marie   Oil on panel  1870s-1880s 
Shepherd with his Flock   Weber, Paul   Oil on canvas  ca. 1880 
Steep Ravine, Marin County, California   Welch, Thaddeus   Oil on canvas  1912 
Landscape with Stream   Wenglein, Josef   Oil on canvas  n.d. 
Seascape   Wenk, Albert   Oil on canvas  ca. 1912-20 
Untitled [Meersburg, Lake Constance]   Wenk, Albert   Oil on canvas  ca. 1920-1934 
Hochzeitsfahrt (Going to the Wedding)   Wierusz-Kowalski, Alfred von   Oil on linen  n.d. 
The Race   Wierusz-Kowalski, Alfred von   Oil on canvas  ca. 1900-1915 
Green Landscape   Willroider, Ludwig   Oil on canvas  1890s 
Landscape   Willroider, Ludwig   Oil on canvas  n.d. 
Landscape with House   Willroider, Ludwig   Oil on canvas  ca. 1890 


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