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
Pope Leo XIII
Franz von Lenbach
Oil on canvas
1885
Portrait of a Lady
Franz von Lenbach
Oil on cardboard
1900
Saharet
Franz von Lenbach
Oil on cardboard
1899
Voluptas
Franz von Lenbach
Oil on canvas
1897
Dans la vallée (In the Valley)
Léon-Augustin Lhermitte
Oil on canvas
1910
Courtyard
Max Liebermann
Oil on panel
ca. 1882
Landscape Near Polling
Adolf Heinrich Lier
Oil on canvas
1860s
Small Girl with Pigs
Edmond Louyot
Oil on canvas
ca. 1893
Stella
Gustav Majer
Oil on canvas
1889
Landscape with Figures
Unknown, in the manner of Edouard Manet
Oil on canvas
n.d.
Peasant Girl with Cattle
Adolphe Charles Marais
Oil on canvas
1890
Bacchante
Gabriel von Max
Oil on canvas
ca. 1900-1915
Botaniker (The Botanists)
Gabriel von Max
Oil on canvas
ca. 1900-1915
Braut von Corinth (Bride of Corinth)
Gabriel von Max
Oil on panel
ca. 1900-1915
Mutter und Kind (Mother and Child)
Gabriel von Max
Oil on canvas
ca. 1909
Nachtigallen (Nightingales)
Gabriel von Max
Oil on canvas
ca. 1900-1915
Pause (At Rest)
Gabriel von Max
Oil on canvas
before 1900
Seifenblasen (Soap Bubbles)
Gabriel von Max
Oil on canvas
1881
The Christian Martyr
Gabriel von Max
Oil on paper mounted on canvas
1867
Untitled
Gabriel von Max
Oil on panel
ca. 1900-1915
Untitled
Gabriel von Max
Oil on canvas
ca. 1900-1915
A Critical Point in the Game
Louis Moeller
Oil on canvas
ca. 1903
The Farmyard
Antonio Matteo Montemezzo
Oil on canvas
n.d.
Fête Galante (A Splendid Party)
Adolphe Monticelli
Oil on panel
n.d.
Study for the Death of Mozart
Mihály de Munkácsy
Oil on panel
1884
The Condemned
Mihály de Munkácsy
Oil on panel
1869-72
Dutch Woman and Child
Albert Neuhuys
Oil on canvas
n.d.
Trüber Wintertag (Cloudy Winter Day)
Rudolph Petuel
Oil on canvas
1913
Charles H. Frye
Henry Raschen
Oil on canvas
1913
Charles H. Frye
Henry Raschen
Oil on canvas
ca. 1913
Chief Seattle
Henry Raschen
Oil on canvas
ca. 1916
Emma Lamp Frye
Henry Raschen
Oil on canvas
1913
Emma Lamp Frye
Henry Raschen
Oil on canvas
ca. 1913
Head study for Portrait of Charles H. Frye
Henry Raschen
Oil on linen
ca. 1913
Landscape with Campfire
Henry Raschen
Oil on canvas
ca. 1915-20
Landscape with Indian Camp
Henry Raschen
Oil on canvas
ca. 1900
Old Man
Henry Raschen
Oil on canvas
n.d.
Old Man
Henry Raschen
Oil on canvas
n.d.
Old Man
Henry Raschen
Oil on canvas
n.d.
Old Man
Henry Raschen
Oil on canvas
n.d.
Old Man
Henry Raschen
Oil on canvas
n.d.
Old Man
Henry Raschen
Oil on canvas
n.d.
Old Man
Henry Raschen
Oil on canvas
n.d.
Old Man (Head) with Locket
Henry Raschen
Oil on canvas
n.d.
Portrait of Charles H. Frye
Henry Raschen
Oil on canvas
ca. 1913
Study of Emma Lamp Frye
Henry Raschen
Oil on canvas
ca. 1913
The Deserted Camp
Henry Raschen
Oil on canvas
n.d.
The Game of Catch
Arturo Ricci
Oil on canvas
after 1880
Two Gordon Setters in a Field
Percival Rosseau
Oil on canvas
1904
First Communion
Juan Pablo Salinas y Teruel
Oil on canvas
ca. 1890