Northwest Art Collection
Preview up to 100 items from this collection below. Prints, drawings and paintings by artists Mark Tobey, Kenneth Callahan, Helmi Juvonen, Robert Cranston Lee and others celebrate the Northwest. Many pieces hail from the 1934 Public Works of Art Project.
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Quillayut dugouts
Thomas Handforth was born in Tacoma, Washington in 1897. He was an etcher, author and painter. He studied under Mahonri Mackintosh Young and at the University of Washington. He is the author of a Caldecott medal winning children’s book called "Mei Li" about a young girl in China, set during Chinese New Year. The book is full of illustrations of China where Handforth lived and visited.
Identifier: spl_art_H192Qu
Date: 1929
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Reference room
Stuart Morris was born in West Virginia in 1882 (?) and studied art in Columbus, Ohio and Philadelphia. He came to Seattle and became art editor for the Seattle P.I. where he was on the staff for nearly 20 years. When he retired in 1928, he was working on the editorial staff of the Times. He is famous for two sketches. One was of the ex-president Theodore Roosevelt which appeared in the paper the day after the president's death in 1919. The other famous sketch was of an old Catholic church on Denny Hill. Both images were requested by people from all over the country for many years.
Identifier: spl_art_M831Re
Date: 1918?
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Sawdust burner
Thomas Handforth was born in Tacoma, Washington in 1897. He was an etcher, author and painter. He studied under Mahonri Mackintosh Young and at the University of Washington. He is the author of a Caldecott medal winning children’s book called "Mei Li" about a young girl in China, set during Chinese New Year. The book is full of illustrations of China where Handforth lived and visited.
Identifier: spl_art_H192Sa
Date: n.d.
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Illustrations for lecture, Feb 26 1948 (1 of 7)
Mark Tobey was born in Centerville, WI in 1890. Beginning his career as an illustrator, Mark Tobey was a deeply religious man, converting to the universalist Baha'i faith in 1918, which would in some way influence all of his works. After extensive traveling, including a period of time at a Zen monastery in Japan, Tobey taught art and philosophy at Dartington Hall in England until 1937. He then developed his "white writing" technique, painting white cursive writing on dark canvas, a technique which he (and many other Northwest artists) would use extensively until his death. He was one of the four painters LIFE magazine described as "Northwest Mystics". The others were Guy Anderson, Morris Graves and Kenneth Callahan. He died in 1976 in Basel, Switzerland.
Identifier: spl_art_T552il1
Date: 1948
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Untitled
Guy Anderson was born in Edmonds, Washington in 1906. At a young age, he was exposed to Asian art and Northwest Indian art and studied portraiture under Eustace Ziegler who taught private art lessons in Seattle. He became friends with Morris Graves and the two worked on the Public Works of Art Project for Washington State during the Depression in the 1930’s. He developed his distinctive painting style while living in La Conner, Washington. He died there in 1998. He was one of the four painters LIFE magazine described as "Northwest Mystics". The others were Kenneth Callahan, Morris Graves and Mark Tobey.
Identifier: spl_art_An231Un
Date: 1968
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Woman's mask with labret
Helmi Juvonen was born in Butte, Montana on January 17, 1903. She worked in many media including printmaking, painting and paper-craft. She attended Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle where she met artist Mark Tobey with whom she was famously obsessed. Although she was diagnosed as a manic-depressive in 1930, she gained wide appreciation in the Northwest for her linocut prints depicting Northwest Indian people and tribal ceremonies. She worked with a number of artists on the Public Works of Art Project including Fay Chong and Morris Graves. Over the years, her mental health deteriorated and in 1960 she was declared a ward of the state and was committed to Oakhurst Convalescent Center. She was much beloved and had many friends and benefactors (including Wes Wehr) and was able to have exhibitions despite the confinement. She died in 1985.
Identifier: spl_art_J989Wo
Date: 1958?
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Narcissa Latimer letter to Alexander and Sarah Latimer, November 17, 1884
Narcissa Leonora (Nora) Latimer Denny was the daughter of Alexander and Sarah Latimer. She had four sisters: Eliza Alice Latimer Fowler (1856-1934), Harriet Ellen Latimer Stephens (1859-1938), Clara Latimer Bickford (1861-1934), and Emma Chesney Latimer Reynolds (1864-1946). Narcissa married Orion Denny on April 1, 1889. The letter is addressed to Alexander and Sarah Latimer and is written from Seattle. It discusses Seattle's climate, her duties as a teacher, women's suffrage, the recent presidential election and Denny family matters including the birth of Roland Denny's third daughter (Edith Denny). Narcissa writes that one of Roland's daughters' was upset that the baby was a girl and notes that ""Cousin Arthur"" (Arthur Denny) consoled the child by telling her that a girl is worth as much as a boy because ""She can vote."" (Washington Territory women were granted the right to vote in 1883 but the right was repealed in August 1888 when a court ruled that the territorial government did not have the authority to enfranchise women voters. Washington became a state in 1889 but women did not regain the vote in Washington until 1910.)
Identifier: spl_lj_004
Date: 1884-11-17
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Pencil sketches of CCC camps: roadside cleaning - fire prevention; Orcas Island, Wash.
Identifier: spl_art_N779Pe09
Date: 1934
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