SEATTLE, WA.- Drawn from the Frye Art Museum’s permanent collection, End of Day presents a selection of approximately 20 portrait and landscape paintings by American artists based primarily in the northeastern United States during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The works in the exhibition span the fifty-year period between the Civil War and First World War, a time of profound social, economic, and political change marked by rapid industrialization, urbanization, and America’s rise as an international superpower. Against this backdrop, the images offer sentiments that oscillate between an embrace of progress and a sense of nostalgia for what was perceived to be a simpler, bygone American era rooted in rural traditions, with many expressing ambivalence toward the complexities of modern life.

End of Day highlights an eclectic array of styles and influences, from the steady, refined brushwork of the Hudson River School’s serene landscapes, to the bold, loose strokes of Impressionism and Realism that sought to depict the world as it appeared before the artist’s eyes. The Frye Art Museum’s holdings in this area were primarily collected under the tenure of the Museum’s first director, Walser Sly Greathouse, who sought to complement Charles and Emma Frye’s Founding Collection of predominantly European oil paintings of the same period. All in all, the featured artists—including George Wesley Bellows, William Merritt Chase, Thomas Eakins, Robert Henri, and George Benjamin Luks, among others—are indicative of an increasing desire to paint according to one’s own beliefs and inclinations rather than strictly adhering to long-held academic principles and traditions, heralding the individualist spirit that would come to characterize American art in the century ahead.

A complementary presentation of rarely-shown wood engravings by Winslow Homer, created as illustrations for Harper’s Weekly between the years of 1861–1875, will serve as a prelude to the exhibition, providing further context into this era of American visual culture.

End of Day: American Oil Painting around 1900 is organized by the Frye Art Museum and curated by David Strand, head of exhibitions and publications, with Erin Langner, exhibitions and publications coordinator. Lead support for the exhibition is provided by the Frye Foundation.