Art in 19th Century Washington State
Folks often think of Washington State as uncivilized when they think back to the beginning of our country's history and the type of folk who made their way west to a "new frontier."
It was anything but that.
Oh, there were some characters in our state's past. What you may not know, however, is our art community was a formidable part of our state's history hundreds of years before we became a state.
Native Artists Pre-1800
Before settlers joined the northwest communities Indians were already making dugout canoes, totems and baskets that are proud pieces of our state's art history and art culture. A good sample of Indian art is at the Makah Cultural and Research Center at Neah Bay in the far northwest corner of our state. It houses artifacts from the Ozette dig that are over 500 years old, such as dug out canoes, basketry, etc. To visit the center online go to http://www.makah.com/museum.htm . You may want to travel there after you've seen what the center offers - the online site doesn't offer many visuals. It's worth a trip, though. Visit this site for a map: http://www.northolympic.com/makah/map.ht...
Later, as folks migrated west, the first white artists were the draftsmen who came with the expeditions sent by the British and United States governments - such as Lt. Zachary Mudge, T. Heddington and J. Sykes, members of the 1792 Vancouver expedition. And so on.
A Bit of Art History - 1800's
Art of Washington State's 19th Century, my favorite, is significant in our cultural and art history. Join me as we meet a few artists of that time.
Lt. Wilkes and Charles Wilson Peale of the Wilkes expedition in the early 1840's made landscape drawings as Alfred A. Agate and Joseph Drayton sketched native tools, costumes, portraits of the Indians, canoes, etc. Agate was the expedition's botanical artist - Drayton made but a few drawings. These drawings represent Washington Territory at the time. A more meticulous history may be read at http://www.herbaria.harvard.edu/Librarie... .
Keep in mind that Washington State was part of the area explored. Budd Inlet near our capitol city, Olympia, was named after Midshipman Thomas A. Budd on that expedition. Our Agate Pass at Bainbridge Island was named after Agate.
When Governor Isaac Stevens made his expeditions in the 1850's he brought along Gustave Sohon, a German soldier-artist of the 4th United States infantry. He sketched local scenes and did portraits of the Indian leaders. He painted them as they were, not as some made them up in war paints and feathers. His drawings were the only known existing portraits of prominent Columbia River chiefs in the 1850's. You may see his May 1855 Walla Walla treaty drawing at http://menolly.lib.uidaho.edu/McBeth/gov... - it brings shivers to my spine. I'm a visual person and almost feel like I'm there. Other drawings are also at that site. They're slow to load, but worth the wait.
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