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.
by Artist
by Artist
by Year
by Object Type
Landscape with Boat
Arnold Gorter
Oil on canvas
ca. 1905-10
Landscape with Cattle
Arnold Gorter
Oil on canvas
ca. 1910
Landscape with Snow
Arnold Gorter
Oil on canvas
n.d.
Landscape with Stream
Arnold Gorter
Oil on canvas
n.d.
October Morning
Arnold Gorter
Oil on canvas
ca. 1910
Trees, Stream & Cattle
Arnold Gorter
Oil on canvas
ca. 1910
Winter Landscape
Arnold Gorter
Oil on canvas
n.d.
Frauenportrait (Portrait of a Woman)
Hugo von Habermann
Oil on canvas
1911-17
Parc Monceau, Paris
Childe Hassam
Oil on canvas
1897
Canal Scene with Sailboat
Karl Heffner
Oil on linen
ca. 1875
Landscape with Poplars
Karl Heffner
Oil on canvas
1890
Spring, Gottenheim
Karl Heffner
Oil on linen mounted on cardboard
ca. 1905
Wilmersdorf, Berlin
Karl Heffner
Oil on canvas
1913
Girl with Geese
Karl A. Heinisch
Oil on canvas
n.d.
Springtime
Adolf Hengeler
Oil on panel
1908
The Blue Dress
Adolf Hengeler
Oil on panel
1912
Three Putti
Adolf Hengeler
Oil on canvas
n.d.
Spanische Tänzerin (Spanish Dancer)
Otto Hierl-Deronco
Oil on canvas
n.d.
Plums
Mary Hinkson
Oil on canvas
after 1883
In the Roman Campagna
Franz-Xaver Hoch
Oil on canvas
n.d.
Landscape with Church Towers
Franz-Xaver Hoch
Oil on canvas
1912
Mountain Brook in the Snow
Franz-Xaver Hoch
Oil on canvas
1912
The Storm
Louis Gabriel Eugène Isabey
Oil on linen mounted on Masonite
1850
Village in the Snow
Jose Maria Jardines
Oil on canvas
ca. 1915
Dipping Sheep
Charles Edward Johnson
Oil on canvas
1890
Moonlight Scene
Johan Barthold Jongkind
Oil on canvas
1864
Dancing Girls in the Garden--Bacchanalia
Friedrich August von Kaulbach
Gouache on canvas
1899
Geraldine Farrar
Friedrich August von Kaulbach
Oil on paperboard
ca. 1905
Portrait of Hanna Ralph
Friedrich August von Kaulbach
Oil on canvas
ca. 1917
Portrait of Hanna Ralph
Friedrich August von Kaulbach
Oil on paperboard
n.d.
Porträt der Familie des Künstlers (Portrait of the Artist’s Family)
Friedrich August von Kaulbach
Oil on canvas
ca. 1907
Rosario Guerrero
Friedrich August von Kaulbach
Oil on canvas
ca. 1908
Drove of Swine: Evening Effect
Ludwig Knaus
Oil on canvas
1878
Portrait of Jacob Stern
Ludwig Knaus
Oil on panel
1877
The Baptism
Ludwig Knaus
Oil on canvas
ca. 1850
The Gypsy Camp
Ludwig Knaus
Oil on linen
1857
Ducks in Green Water
Alexander Max Koester
Oil on canvas
ca. 1910-13
Moulting Ducks
Alexander Max Koester
Oil on canvas
ca. 1900
Bildnis von Leibls Kameraden Stadelmayr (Portrait of Leibl's Comrade Stadelmayr)
Wilhelm Leibl
Oil on paper mounted on cardboard
1864
Countess Leoni Wedel
Franz von Lenbach
Oil on cardboard
1902
Ecstasy
Franz von Lenbach
Oil on canvas
1903
Eleonora Duse
Franz von Lenbach
Oil on canvas
1886
Frau Merk
Franz von Lenbach
Oil on cardboard
1901
Girl with a Hat
Franz von Lenbach
Oil on cardboard
1900
Helmuth, Count von Moltke
Franz von Lenbach
Oil on canvas
1873
Lady Curzon
Franz von Lenbach
Oil on paperboard
1901
Lily von Poschinger
Franz von Lenbach
Oil on canvas
1901
Marion Lenbach
Franz von Lenbach
Oil on canvas
ca. 1895
Marion Lenbach and the Daughter of the Painter Nikolaus Gysis
Franz von Lenbach
Oil on paper mounted on board
1899
Otto von Bismarck
Franz von Lenbach
Oil on canvas
1896