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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,