hunt for the entire collection. She found a set at
Christie’s in New York where it hadn’t sold. We
took a trip to New York and eventually agreed
to acquire it.”
He adds, “I also bought a few of the copper
plates that were used in the photogravure
process to show what Curtis had to go through
back then.”
The couple have done three major remodels
of their Bainbridge Island home including the
creation of a library to contain the collectionand to allow individual images to be displayed.
They had frames made that allow them to shift
out the photogravures from time to time.
Art goes way back in his family. A friend
of his great-grandparents commissioned John
Singer Sargent to paint a portrait of them for
their wedding. The double portrait is considered
one his best. Mr. and Mrs. Isaac Newton Phelps
Stokes, 1897, now hangs in the Metropolitan
Museum of Art.
“My wife likes impressionist art and I likehistory and wanted pieces reflecting the
Northwest,” he says. “His first painting gift to
me was Butler’s Poplars Along the Seine,” she
adds. “I couldn’t afford a Monet,” he comments,
but “Butler married Monet’s step-daughter, so
I got close.”
“I met Allan Kollar, the well-regarded Seattle
dealer. He shares my passion for birds. When
I wanted to buy something out of my range
for my wife, Allan hung four or five paintings
in his gallery. When she walked in, I knew
exactly what she would choose.” She chose By
the Water’s Edge by Karl Albert Buehr which
had been in a collection earlier assembled by
Kollar. “It’s my favorite painting,” she says.
“When I first started out I wanted artists from
the Northwest,” he says. “I would go to auction
houses looking for that ruby in the rough.
I bought my first James Everett Stuart at auction,
a scene of Tacoma and Mount Rainier. I took it
to a dealer and asked, ‘What do you think?’ The
dealer said, ‘Did you look at it under a black
light?’ The black light reveals later overpainting.
He said, ‘There’s not much left that was painted
by the artist!’ It was the start of an education.
I taught myself to be less impetuous.”
When the collector first moved to Seattle he
was befriended by an elderly couple. For years
he had admired Coming Home, a scene of
Alaska by Eustace Paul Ziegler, that hung over
their fireplace. When their son was settling their
estate, he called the collector to ask if he would
like to buy it. It now hangs in the couple’s
dining room.
Among the contemporary artists in the
collection is Michael Coleman. “I like art
because the artist sees things I never see or sees
them in a way that strikes a chord. Michael
Coleman is great at painting reflected light in
an outdoor setting. We stopped to visit him at
his studio in Utah, and I commented on that.
Coleman told me, ‘I know how to do this
because when I was 16 I ran a trap line in the
winter to pay for college. I know what the light
looks like because I have been there at ever
time of day in every weather condition.’”
“I’ve never thought of this as a collection,”
he explains. “Its eclectic nature reflects the
various iterations of my life. A lot of what
I bought when I was younger I wouldn’t buy
now. But if I can’t tell you why I like living with
a piece, tell me to get rid of it.”
The couple’s house suits their interests and
has its own history. “It’s on the site of a really
old community,” he explains. “It’s a rustic house
with comforts that match my interests. I can
step outside and go rowing, train my dogs, and
chase my wife’s chickens out of my vegetable
garden. I wake up every day and enjoy it. We
both like coming home.”In the entry is By the Water’s Edge by Karl Albert Buehr (1866-1952). On the left is Rocks Along
the New England Coast, 1871, by Francis Augustus Silva (1835-1886).