Painter of the Pomo People (original) (raw)

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Grace Hudson: Painter of the Pomo People

October 12 - December 7, 2014

Grace Hudson (1865-1937) was born Grace Carpenter in Potter Valley and grew up in nearby Ukiah, California. At fifteen she went to San Francisco to attend art school and furthered her already obvious talent. She returned to Ukiah at age twenty an extremely capable painter. She married Dr. John Hudson in 1890. John's interest in the study of Native American culture and language combined with Grace's familiarity with the local Pomo People led to their lifelong commitment to study and document the Pomo and other California Indians. While John traveled the state doing field studies and gathering basket collections for eastern museums, Grace created portraits of a race and culture they feared would soon die out. Working with a woman's sensitivity and perspective, she chose the children and women of the Pomo as her primary subjects. The depictions struck a special tender note with the public and she soon became a nationally known artist.

To view wall panels from the exhibition please click here.

Object labels from the exhibition

Grace Carpenter

Untitled, 1880

Watercolor on paper

Collection of the Grace Hudson Museum & Sun House, Ukiah

Original Carpenter/Hudson Estate

(Accession No. 8402)

This youthful work demonstrates fifteen-year-old Grace Carpenter's natural talent for drawing and watercolor. It is one

of several early pieces in the Grace Hudson Museum's collections which depict non-Native children.

Grace Carpenter

The Geese Tender, 1880

Oil on canvas

Collection of the Grace Hudson Museum & Sun House, Ukiah

Gift of Sally B. Wick

(Accession No. 93-4-1)

This painting, and the nearby untitled small watercolor of the same year, are good examples of Grace Carpenter's work

just prior to the beginning of her formal art training. Notice that even at this early date, she shows an interest in genre

scenes involving children and animals.

Grace Carpenter

Portrait of a Man, 1881

Charcoal and white chalk on paper

Collection of the Grace Hudson Museum & Sun House, Ukiah

Original Carpenter/Hudson Estate

(Accession No. 523)

This is a fine example of Grace's academic drawing from her first year of study at the San Francisco School of

Design. She was fond of the piece, as it appears in numerous photographs of her studio walls that are hung with

her own artwork.

Grace Carpenter Davis

Girl Feeding Birds, 1887

Pen and ink on paper

Collection of the Grace Hudson Museum & Sun House, Ukiah

Original Carpenter/Hudson Estate

(Accession No. 542)

Of particular note here is the rare "Grace Davis" signature. This is one of the few works in the Grace Hudson

Museum's collections that bears Grace's name from her first marriage.

Grace Carpenter Hudson

The Seed Conjurer, 1896

(Painting No. 61)

Oil on canvas

Collection of the Grace Hudson Museum & Sun House, Ukiah

Gift of John and Margarett Parducci

(Accession No. 96-5-1)

In this portrait, Hudson depicts a portion of a traditional Pomo ritual performed to ensure an abundant harvest.

The "conjurer" wears a number of important items of ceremonial regalia: an eagle feather dance mantle, a flicker

quill head-band, several long slender dance plumes, and a feathered topknot. The pieces reproduced in the

painting came from the Hudsons' extensive collection of Pomo artifacts, as did the flute that is being played.

Tom Mitchell was the model for this work. Mitchell was a consultant for John Hudson's ethnographic studies,

sharing with Hudson a wealth of lin-guistic and cultural information. He is notable as one of the few Pomo

Indian men that Grace Hudson portrayed in their youth. The scarcity of such images might be due to the fact

that younger men were busy working for their living on neighboring ranches. Perhaps, too, Grace found

portraits of young men less popular, and thus less commercially viable, than portraits of young children or

distinguished elders. Also, it might have caused gossip to have a White woman associating with virile Indian

men. In any case, the fact that Tom Mitchell agreed to pose for the portrait shown here is indicative of the close

relationship between Mitchell and the Hudsons.

Flicker Quill Headband, circa 1895

Flicker feathers and Dogbane

Cordage

Collection of the Grace Hudson Museum & Sun House, Ukiah

Gift of John and Margarett Parducci

(Accession No. 96-5-2)

This headband was fashioned from the feathers of flicker birds, stripped to leave behind only the brightly colored

shafts, which were strung tightly together to form a band. At regular intervals, the maker inserted a quill on which

the black feather remained, forming borders of dark diamonds.

Male dancers generally wore these headbands horizontally across the forehead, overshadowing their eyes (as

seen in The Seed Conjurer, nearby). The middle section was tied tightly to the head, while the sides hung freely,

undulating with the dancer's movements. Sometimes a man would wear a band up to five feet long, fastened to the

top of the head through a hairnet. It would then hang down his back, almost touching the ground.

Grace Carpenter Hudson

Baggage, 1897

(Painting No. 101)

Oil on canvas

Collection of the Grace Hudson Museum & Sun House, Ukiah

Gift of the grandparents of Marin Aubuchon, William Aubuchon, and Selenna Young on behalf of all children who will

visit "Billy"

(Accession No. 88-5-1)

This portrait may demonstrate rethinking on Grace Hudson's part, or her response to some kind of damage to the

canvas. As shown below, a contact print from a glass plate negative made by her father, A. O.

Carpenter, depicts a similar, though bigger, painting with a horizontal format (Accession No. 3101). Though the

baby in both works (christened Mr. Doctor Hudson Billy-Bow-Legs) is identical, there is a large bundle (or

"baggage") to the right of the figure below. For Grace to produce the painting you are viewing, the horizontal work

would have had to have been cut down, and the background completely repainted. However, only x-raying at a

conservation lab could verify this positively. Grace did record that "Baggage" was shown at the Paris Exposition, or

World's Fair, in France in 1900.

Grace Carpenter Hudson

Ma-tu, 1912

(Painting No. 414)

Oil on canvas

Collection of the Grace Hudson Museum & Sun House, Ukiah

Purchase of the Sun House Guild

(Accession No. 2002-3-1)

"[Portrait] of a Poma Medicine Man whose patron spirit lives in the North and dictates through dreams. His [head

net] is filled with eagle down, the necklace is made of bear claws, and the head of the wild cat with the open

mouth and furs from these animals are symbolic of the potency derived from them. The double whistle invokes the

North Spirit. The wand is used to draw forth the disease which filters through the festers. The small bag contains

the medicine."

-Grace Hudson

Grace Carpenter Hudson

Little Girl with Fawn "Hu-hi-a and Bu-shay," 1919

(Painting No. 525)

Oil on canvas

Collection of the Grace Hudson Museum & Sun House, Ukiah

Gift of the Ivan B. and Elvira Hart Trust

(Accession No. 95-1-13)

"Hu-hi-a has no brothers, sisters, dog or doll, but she always finds amusement and companionship in the little wild

creatures of the woods.

One day while she was sitting very still watching a squirrel, a tiny bu-shay [deer] walked straight up to her and said

'Take me home! Take me home!'­or so Hu-hi-a told her mother when she reached home with him in her arms.

Bu-shay took kindly to pinole [acorn meal], Hu-hi-a's bed and the Indian ways, and though he seems to understand

the language, no one but Hu-hi-a has heard him speak."

- Grace Hudson

A. O. Carpenter, Photographer Poma Dancer, Squealing Charley [Charley Brown], circa 1892

From 6 x 4 inch vintage print

Collection of the Grace Hudson Museum & Sun House, Ukiah

Original Carpenter/Hudson Estate

(Accession No. 15240a)

Grace's parents, A. O. and Helen Carpenter, ran a photography studio in Ukiah, active primarily from the early

1870s-1900. A tall, striking Pomo man named Charley Brown was a favorite subject pictured in many of the

Carpenters' commercial photographs of Indian people. Famed throughout the region for his strength and colorful

personality, he was usually called "Squealing Charley" because of his high-pitched voice. A number of popular

Carpenter postcards, including one of this image, featured Brown. Supposedly depicting Brown in a ritual dance, he

is shown wearing a mix of traditional Pomo regalia and contrived studio props. When looking closely, a profile can

be seen in the water spot in the upper left of the photograph. Lightly scratched into the glass plate negative itself,

this might be the mischievous handiwork of one of the Carpenters' grandchildren.

Grace Carpenter Hudson

The Medicine Dancer, circa 1892

Pen and ink drawing

Collection of the Grace Hudson Museum & Sun House, Ukiah

Original Carpenter/Hudson Estate

(Accession No. 8358)

Grace based this drawing on her father's photograph of "Squealing Charley" Brown.

Grace Carpenter Hudson

Portrait Sketch of a Pomo Youth, n.d.

Oil on canvas

Collection of the Grace Hudson Museum & Sun House, Ukiah

(Accession No. 2003-8-1)

Grace Carpenter Hudson

Basket Baby, "Ket-Bim," 1933 (Painting No. 674)

Oil on canvas

Collection of the Grace Hudson Museum & Sun House, Ukiah

Gift of the Vann Family Trust

(Accession No. 2003-4-1)

Grace Carpenter Hudson

Riverbank, n.d.

Oil on board

Collection of the Grace Hudson Museum & Sun House, Ukiah

Gift of Donna and Peter Schoeningh in Memory of Naomi G. Burnett Schoeningh

(Accession No. 99-2-20)

This scene probably depicts the Russian River in Mendocino County.

Grace Carpenter Hudson

Little Woods with Autumn Colors, n.d.

Oil on canvas mounted on board

Collection of the Grace Hudson Museum & Sun House, Ukiah

Gift of the Susan Bowman Gardiner Estate

(Accession No. 98-1-2)

Grace Carpenter Hudson

A Summer Day, 1918 (Signed 1919)

(Painting No. 507)

Oil on canvas

Collection of the Grace Hudson Museum & Sun House, Ukiah

Gift of Joe and Marian Scherf in memory of Alvin and Vera Rupe

(Accession No. 91-11-1)

"Wy-kly and Tonno drift from one blissful day to another with no cares or worries beyond which pool they will

swim in next, or how long it will take mother to cook the fish.

In winter Wy-kly and Tonno hibernate in the mountains -- when spring comes the family moves to the Russian River

Valley where father works in the hops, mother makes beautiful baskets, sings to the baby and cooks such good

things on a little camp fire.

Wy-kly and Tonno are in a paradise of sunshine, sand and water, with fish, birds and a thousand joys."

- Grace Hudson

Grace Carpenter Hudson

Chicky Ducks, 1909

(Painting No. 346)

Oil on canvas

Collection of the Grace Hudson Museum & Sun House, Ukiah

Gift of the Susan Bowman

Gardiner Estate in memory of her husband, Paul H. Gardiner

(Accession No. 98-1-10)

Grace Carpenter Hudson

Basket Baby and Dog, 1930 (Painting No. 649)

Oil on canvas

Collection of the Grace Hudson Museum & Sun House, Ukiah

Donated in the memory of Hal Lewis Stevens by Lois Prante Stevens

(Accession No. 87-2-1)

Grace Carpenter Hudson

The Singing Throat, "Ké-me-ya," 1929

(Painting No. 645)

Oil on canvas

Collection of the Grace Hudson Museum & Sun House, Ukiah

Gift of John and Margarett Parducci

(Accession No. 91-6-1)

"The Ké-me-ya, or Singing Throat, is the tribal singer, the minstrel, the poet. She is trained from childhood. Her

throat is massaged with a certain oil, and she is taught the old carols just as they have been passed down from one

generation to the next.

She sings on formal festive occasions, always accompanied by her full chorus and rhythmic instruments.

Sometimes, when she goes with women to gather acorns or wild seeds and the work becomes irksome and the

harvesters weary, she will step into a little opening and start her high plaintive tremolo. The women run to her,

taking up the chorus, and all else is forgotten. I have seen big Indians shed tears when she sings.

Her message is prophetic of Prosperity; the coming of the birds, the flowers, green clover and abundant harvest.

The Ké-me-ya enjoys great deference and esteem. She receives beautiful gifts and her person is sacred in times of

Peace or War.

Her fees for the evening are the basket under her arm and the strings of wampum around her neck. The background, the

trail through the hills, is between the Yokaya and Calpella Rancherias."

- Grace Hudson

Grace Carpenter Hudson

The Bride, 1930

(Painting No. 647)

Oil on canvas

Collection of the Grace Hudson Museum & Sun House, Ukiah

Original Carpenter/Hudson Estate

(Accession No. 541)

The Pomo bride in this painting is surrounded by the baskets, ear sticks, and clamshell disc beads of her dowry.

Virtually all of the objects in The Bride are still in the collections of the Grace Hudson Museum. They, along with the

painting, never left the possession of the Carpenter and Hudson families, and formed part of the original

Carpenter/Hudson estate.

Rosa Peters, Weaver (Yokayo, Central Pomo)

Coiled Beaded Gift Basket, circa 1894

Willow shoots, sedge roots, bulrush roots, and glass beads

Collection of the Grace Hudson Museum & Sun House, Ukiah

Original Carpenter/Hudson Estate

(Accession No. 1323)

Illustrated in Grace Hudson's painting The Singing Throat.

Weaver Unknown, (Pomo)

Coiled Feast Tray, circa 1900

Willow shoots, sedge roots, and bulrush roots

Collection of the Grace Hudson Museum & Sun House, Ukiah

Original Carpenter/Hudson Estate

(Accession No. 1243)

Illustrated in Grace Hudson's painting The Bride.

Weaver Unknown, (Pomo)

Coiled Boat Basket, circa 1900

Willow shoots, sedge roots,

bulrush roots, and quail topknot feathers

Collection of the Grace Hudson Museum & Sun House, Ukiah

Original Carpenter/Hudson Estate

(Accession No. 1242)

Illustrated in Grace Hudson's painting The Bride.

Weaver Unknown, (Pomo)

Coiled Small Gift Basket, circa 1900

Willow shoots, sedge roots, bulrush roots, and acorn woodpecker feathers

Collection of the Grace Hudson Museum & Sun House, Ukiah

Original Carpenter/Hudson Estate

(Accession No. 1226)

Illustrated in Grace Hudson's painting The Bride.

Clamshell Disc Bead Necklace

Pomo, circa 1900

Collection of the Grace Hudson Museum & Sun House, Ukiah

Original Carpenter/Hudson Estate

(Accession No. 1479)

Illustrated in Grace Hudson's paintings The Bride and The Singing Throat.

Clamshell Disc Bead Necklace with Magnesite Cylinder

Pomo, circa 1900

Collection of the Grace Hudson Museum & Sun House, Ukiah

Gift of Phyllis Curtis

(Accession No. 91-9-1)

Illustrated in Grace Hudson's painting The Bride.

(above: Grace Carpenter Hudson, A Summer Day, 1918 (Signed 1919), (Painting No. 507), Oil on canvas. Collection of the Grace Hudson Museum & Sun House, Ukiah. Gift of Joe and Marian Scherf in memory of Alvin and Vera Rupe. Accession No. 91-11-1)

(above: Grace Carpenter Hudson, Baggage, 1897, (Painting No. 101), Oil on canvas. Collection of the Grace Hudson Museum & Sun House, Ukiah. Gift of the grandparents of Marin Aubuchon, William Aubuchon, and Selenna Young on behalf of all children who will visit "Billy". Accession No. 88-5-1)

(above: Grace Carpenter Hudson, Chicky Ducks, 1909, (Painting No. 346), Oil on canvas. Collection of the Grace Hudson Museum & Sun House, Ukiah. Gift of the Susan Bowman Gardiner Estate in memory of her husband, Paul H. Gardiner. Accession No. 98-1-10)

(above: Grace Carpenter Hudson, The Bride, 1930, (Painting No. 647), Oil on canvas. Collection of the Grace Hudson Museum & Sun House, Ukiah. Original Carpenter/Hudson Estate. Accession No. 541)

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