Grace Hudson Pomo Dwelling Near Hopland

Grace Hudson (1865-1937)

Pomo Dwelling Near Hopland

oil on board

8 1/2″ x 10 1/2″

Born in Potter Valley near Ukiah, CA on Feb. 21, 1865. Grace Carpenter showed artistic promise at an early age. After attending public schools in Ukiah and San Francisco, at age 14 she enrolled at the local School of Design. For five school terms she studied there with Virgil Williams, Raymond Yelland, Domenico Tojetti, and Oscar Kunath. After her marriage to Dr. John Hudson in 1890, she returned to Ukiah. Their home at 431 South Main (now a museum) was marked with a totem pole in front and was known as “The Sun House.” The Pomo Indians who lived in the area accepted Grace as one of them and called her “Painter Lady.” After her painting of Little Mendocino (a crying Pomo baby) caused a sensation at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893, she then specialized in painting the Pomos. Most of her subjects were of the children and babies of the tribe, the older Pomos being superstitious about having their images recorded. Her oils chronicled the Pomo culture and are of great historical value. In addition to the Pomos she spent several months painting the native children of Hawaii in 1901 and a commission took her to Oklahoma to paint the Pawnees in 1904. Mrs. Hudson died at her Ukiah home on March 23, 1937 having left a great legacy to our national art. The monument marking her grave in Ukiah Cemetery is of her own design, a basalt shaft capped with a mourning phoenix. Exh: Calif. State Fair, 1879-1902; San Francisco Art Association, 1892-1902; Kennedy-Rabjohn Gallery (SF), 1902 (solo); Schussler Gallery (SF), 1907; Del Monte Art Gallery (Monterey), 1907-10; Alaska-Yukon Expo (Seattle), 1909; Gould Gallery (LA), 1907; Kanst Gallery (LA), 1910. In: Oakland Museum; Field Museum (Chicago); CHS; Royal Gallery (London); NMAA; Orange Co. (CA) Museum; LACMA; MM.

Edan Hughes, “Artists in California, 1786-1940”
The Painter Lady; Artists of the American West (Samuels); American Art Annual 1909; Women Artists of the American WestArtists of the American West (Samuels); Artists of the American West (Doris Dawdy); Calif. Hist. Society Quarterly, March 1958; Dictionnaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs, et Graveurs (Bénézit, E); California State Library (Sacramento); SF Chronicle, 3-24-1937 (obituary).