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
Herbstwald mit Kühen (Autumn Forest with Cows)
Carola Baer-von Mathes
Oil on linen
ca. 1890
Landscape with Trees
Fritz Baer
Oil on linen
ca. 1905
Sommertag, Weiden am Bach (Summer Day, Willows on Brook)
Fritz Baer
Oil on linen
ca. 1905
Wash Day
Fritz Baer
Oil on linen
ca. 1880
Cattle
Léon Barillot
Oil on linen
ca. 1880
Three Cows and a Calf
Léon Barillot
Oil on linen
ca. 1890
An d. Loisachtal (Loisach Valley)
Giulio Beda
Oil on linen
ca. 1900
Dordrecht, The Cathedral
Eugène Boudin
Oil on panel
ca. 1885-89
Dordrecht, the Meuse seen from Swandrecht
Eugène Boudin
Oil on canvas
1879
View of the Harbor, Le Havre
Eugène Boudin
Oil on panel
ca. 1885-90
Dans les bois (In the Woods)
William-Adolphe Bouguereau
Oil on canvas
1905
Flight of Love
William-Adolphe Bouguereau
Oil on canvas
1901
Gardeuse de moutons (The Shepherdess)
William-Adolphe Bouguereau
Oil on canvas
1881
Goats and Sheep
Anton Braith
Oil on linen
ca. 1870
Shepherd with Goats
Anton Braith
Oil on canvas
1895
Moonlight Scene
François Cachoud
Oil on linen
1914
Septembre
François Cachoud
Oil on linen
ca. 1900
Pointers in the Woods, Autumn
John Califano
Oil on canvas
ca. 1905
Bei Brügge (At Bruges)
Gilbert von Canal
Oil on canvas
ca. 1905
Roses
Emil Carlsen
Oil on canvas
1895
Surf Breaking
Emil Carlsen
Oil on canvas
1911
Venice
Hermann Corrodi
Oil on canvas
ca. 1900
View of Corsica
Hermann Corrodi
Oil on canvas
ca. 1890
Norwegian Girl
Hans Dahl
Oil on canvas
ca. 1905
The Coming Storm, West Norway
Hans Dahl
Oil on canvas
ca. 1890-1905
Rocky Landscape with Birches
Théophile de Bock
Oil on canvas
n.d.
Bavarian Girl
Franz von Defregger
Oil on paperboard
1911
Head of a Girl
Franz von Defregger
Oil on panel
ca. 1890
Im Gasthaus (At the Inn)
Franz von Defregger
Oil on canvas
1887
Man with a Pipe
Franz von Defregger
Oil on canvas
ca. 1910
The Blonde Bavarian
Franz von Defregger
Oil on panel
ca. 1905
Visitors in the Tyrol
Attributed to Franz von Defregger
Oil on canvas
ca. 1875-79
Landscape at Barbizon
Narcisse Virgile Diaz de la Peña
Oil on canvas
1870-75
Hunters and Hounds
Wilhelm von Diez
Oil on canvas
1869
Birkenwald (Birch Grove)
Ludwig Dill
Oil on canvas
ca. 1900
Rooster and Chickens
Walter Douglas
Oil on canvas
ca. 1920
Seascape with Figures
Nikolai Nikanorovich Dubovskoi
Oil on canvas
1899
August
Carl Ebert
Oil on panel
ca. 1870
By the Shores of Chiemsee
Carl Ebert
Oil on canvas
1880
Landscape with a Bridge
Carl Ebert
Oil on panel
ca. 1860
Motiv aus der Herzegowina (Scene of Herzegovina)
Carl Ebert
Oil on canvas
1883
Die Römer der Verfallzeit (Romans of the Decadence)
Anselm Feuerbach
Oil on canvas
ca. 1850
Self-Portrait
Anselm Feuerbach
Oil on canvas
1853
Märchenerzählerin (Storyteller)
Walther Firle
Oil on paperboard
1884-89
Dressing the Children
Walter Geffcken
Oil on cardboard
ca. 1913
Plauderei (Conversation)
Walter Geffcken
Oil on cardboard
ca. 1913
Sun Maiden
Lillian Genth
Oil on canvas
ca. 1909
View of Reichenau
Georg Geyer
Oil on canvas
1866
Autumn Sun
Arnold Gorter
Oil on canvas
n.d.