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
Peacock
Julius Scheuerer
Oil on canvas
1907
In a Föhn Storm
Mathias Schmid
Oil on cardboard
1886
Head of a Girl
Leopold Schmutzler
Oil on cardboard
n.d.
Here I Am
Leopold Schmutzler
Oil on paperboard
ca. 1910
Woman in Costume
Leopold Schmutzler
Oil on canvas
ca. 1910
Cardinals at Leisure
Max Scholz
Oil on canvas
1890s
Arab Riders
Adolf Schreyer
Oil on panel
1870s
The Burning Stable
Adolf Schreyer
Oil on canvas
n.d.
Head of a Man
Max Slevogt
Oil on canvas
1888
View of Königssee
Dániel Somogyi
Oil on canvas
1878
Expectation
Frederic Soulacroix
Oil on canvas
n.d.
Four in Hand
Christian Speyer
Oil on canvas
1911
The Time of the Cuckoo
Edmund Steppes
Oil on linen
1907
Head of a Girl
Unknown, in the manner of Alfred Stevens
Oil on canvas
n.d.
At the Stream
Otto Strützel
Oil on canvas
ca. 1905
Autumn Morning with Sheep
Otto Strützel
Oil on linen
n.d.
In the Pasture
Otto Strützel
Oil on canvas
1912
Die Sünde (Sin)
Franz von Stuck
Tempera on canvas
ca. 1908
Saharet
Franz von Stuck
Oil on cardboard
1902
The Artist's Daughter in Spanish Costume
Franz von Stuck
Oil on panel
1914
Frühlingtanz (Spring Dance)
Franz von Stuck
Oil on canvas
ca. 1925
The Duel
Franz von Stuck
Oil on canvas
1907
Urteil des Paris (The Judgment of Paris)
Franz von Stuck
Oil on panel
1923
Rest on the Flight into Egypt
Hans Thoma
Watercolor and black ink on board
1915
Summer Night
Hans Thoma
Oil on paper mounted on fabric
1882
Waterfall
Hortense Trotter
Oil on canvas
1896
Das Bilderbuch I (Picture Book I)
Fritz von Uhde
Oil on canvas
1889
The Musical Cavalier
Fritz von Uhde
Oil on panel
1877
Weib, warum weinest du? (Woman, Why Weepest Thou?)
Fritz von Uhde
Oil on canvas
1892-94
The Grand Canal, Venice
Franz Unterberger
Oil on canvas
1890s
In the Marshes
Emile van Marcke de Lummen
Oil on canvas
ca. 1880
First Snow
Pieter van Veen
Oil on canvas
ca. 1914
Saplings by the River
Pieter van Veen
Oil on linen
1921
The Willows
Pieter van Veen
Oil on canvas
1918
Study for Cattle on the Shore
Johann Friedrich Voltz
Oil on panel
ca. 1883
Evening by Moorland Stream, Loch Lyon, Perthshire
William Watson Junior
Oil on canvas
1910
Morning on the Hills of Loch Eilt, Invernesshire
William Watson Junior
Oil on canvas
1909
Morning on the Hills, Loch Tay, Perthshire
William Watson Junior
Oil on canvas
1910
Head of a Girl in Folk Costume
Marie Weber
Oil on panel
1870s-1880s
Shepherd with his Flock
Paul Weber
Oil on canvas
ca. 1880
Steep Ravine, Marin County, California
Thaddeus Welch
Oil on canvas
1912
Landscape with Stream
Josef Wenglein
Oil on canvas
n.d.
Seascape
Albert Wenk
Oil on canvas
ca. 1912-20
![Image of Untitled [Meersburg, Lake Constance]](/media/Previews/1952.190_Fang_Low-Res.png)
Untitled [Meersburg, Lake Constance]
Albert Wenk
Oil on canvas
ca. 1920-1934
Hochzeitsfahrt (Going to the Wedding)
Alfred von Wierusz-Kowalski
Oil on linen
n.d.
The Race
Alfred von Wierusz-Kowalski
Oil on canvas
ca. 1900-1915
Green Landscape
Ludwig Willroider
Oil on canvas
1890s
Landscape
Ludwig Willroider
Oil on canvas
n.d.
Landscape with House
Ludwig Willroider
Oil on canvas
ca. 1890