Soft Glowing Light: Viewing Art in the Home of Charles and Emma Frye

Frye Art Museum founders Charles and Emma Frye loved the pursuit of art collecting, whether traveling through Europe or monitoring auctions in New York. Although documentation of their art purchases is sparse, it appears they began collecting in 1909 and the couple continued to build their collection into the 1930s, when the Great Depression limited their financial ability to buy art. The Fryes became associated with other collectors, artists, and dealers nationally and internationally, and they also contributed to the local art scene, opening the art gallery in their First Hill mansion to special groups and charitable events.

This exhibition of photographs from the Frye Art Museum Archives catalogues the growth of Charles and Emma Frye’s private art collection and demonstrates the collectors’ lively curatorial activities. Documenting each wall of the room Charles called “the picture gallery,” the photographs illustrate how the Fryes hung and re-hung their paintings and reveal the couple’s vigorous and in-depth collecting practices.