This biography from the Archives of AskART:
|  The following biography was written by Charles Muehleck in conjunction
with "Eliza R. Barchus, A Treasured Oregon Artist", a retrospective
exhibit held 5/1 10/31/02 at the Pittock Mansion, Portland Oregon.
Reprinted with permission of the author.
ELIZA ROSANNA BARCHUS
A TREASURED OREGON ARTIST
Eliza
Rosanna Lamb was born into the life of the raw Wild West in 1857. Her
family generally led a nomadic life, frequently moving from town to
town by wagon in search of work. For a period of time, her stepfather
(her father died soon after she was born) led a colorful life as a US
Deputy Marshal under "Wild Bill" Hickok. While a harsh childhood
environment to be raised in, she learned the value of hard work, and
which she would draw upon throughout her later life. In 1880, at the
age of 22, she moved to Portland, Oregon, with her second new husband,
John Barchus. Why Portland? That is unknown, but we are grateful that
she did!
Settling in Portland was her first opportunity to
lay down roots. It is likely that she had always dreamed of being an
artist. Now, her husband likely gave her the encouragement and
resources she needed to fulfill that desire. So in 1884 Barchus took
what were probably her only lessons in painting. While Portland already
supported several instructors of art, she chose to study under William
S. Parrott, likely because she admired his work, both in subject matter
- local landscape - and artistic style. She adopted many of his
methods, resulting in her early work being quite similar to his. Even
today, 'Barchus school' or 'Parrott school' are frequently used terms
to describe paintings by turn-of-the-century Oregon artists that align
with their style.
Within two years of her first lesson, Eliza
commenced upon an art career that would ultimately span 50 years. In
fact, by 1886 she had become an art instructor herself, advertised in The Oregonian
daily newspaper that she had opened painting classes for young women,
offering them at the "reduced rate of 50 cents" per lesson.
She
also began submitting her work at local art fairs, including the Annual
Portland Mechanics Fair held each fall. A newspaper reference of "Mrs.
Barchus's (sic) specimens will be seen at the fair" indicates that she
participated in the 1886 Fair. However, it was not until the next year
that she hit gold earning the top prize for one of her landscape
paintings! She was justifiably proud of her accomplishment.
She later had the dime-size medal incorporated into a necklace, which
can be seen in early photographs of the artist. In 1888 she was
again recognized for her entries at the Fair with a silver medal.
With
back-to-back medal honors, and local encouragement, Barchus decided to
submit an entry to National Academy of Design's 1890 fall show in New
York City. In route to the exhibition, Barchus had a chance
encounter in Chicago with Henry Pittock (who later built the Pittock
Mansion). He gave her encouragement for her journey and wish of
success. At 32 years of age and just six years after starting her
career, Barchus had now exhibited at one of America's most prestigious
art association.
While Barchus was establishing herself as an
artist, family commitments were also growing. Two children were born in
the early 1890's, which undoubtedly demanded her maternal attention.
Additionally, her husband's health began to deteriorate from Brights
disease (a kidney ailment), and he died in 1899. Therefore, her talent
in painting soon became the sole livelihood for the family.
At
a time when most women did not work, Barchus became a very adept and
enterprising businesswoman. Remarkably, starting in 1891, she arranged
for six homes to be built for her family in over a span of about twenty
years. Construction costs were frequently paid by barter of her
paintings rather than cash. Four of these southeast Portland homes are
still in use today.
Her savvy was not limited to domestic
activities. She was a keeper of a downtown Portland art studio during
this period. Her first studio was in the prominent Dekum building and
later moved to the Multnomah building. Additionally, she arranged to
have examples of her work displayed at other business establishments,
including the local cigar & newspaper concessionaire B.B. Rich in
at the famous Portland Hotel when it opened in 1890.
With the
growing need to support a family, and to assure enough supply of
paintings for her flourishing tourist sales, Barchus began to produce
standard sizes of popular northwest scenery in assembly-line type
fashion. A collection of similarly unfinished paintings illustrate that
she would work on ten or more paintings of a single scene at the same
time: first painting the sky, then the background, and then moving
toward the foreground with various layers of paint, likely letting each
previous effort dry before beginning the next. She now reduced the
detail elements that her earlier paintings had and a the "'Barchus'"
style developed appeared in her work. Popular scenes included the
tremendous geologic formations of the region: local mountains (Mount
Hood, Mount Rainier, Mount St. Helens, and Mount Three Sisters),
Multnomah Falls, Rooster Rock and Crater Lake.
At arguably the
peak of her career, Portland played host to the world with the 1905
Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition and Oriental Fair. Barchus
obtained a concessionaire's booth to sell paintings in the fair
grounds. In anticipation, she had color reproductions of her paintings
printed that were offered at the fair for a seemingly high price of 75
cents (an original painting could be purchased for $3.50). These
lithographs later evolved into successful postcard sales for many years
afterwards. At the end of the Fair, Barchus again earned recognition by
being awarded a the gold medal for the best collection of paintings of
Pacific Coast scenery.
Helen Barchus was primarily a studio
painter and used photographs or literary descriptions as the source of
many of her compositions. However, she did enjoy to traveling and such
trips tended to be for the purpose of painting. The normal output of
such a trip for an artist would typically be sketches that would later
be used to complete finished oils upon return to the studio. However,
it does not appear that Barchus produced sketches as none have been
located. Therefore, it can be assumed that she completed paintings
while on these trips, which she used for subsequent paintings. (This
would explain the large variety of scenery still intact in the artist's
collection at the time she finally laid down her brushes and pallet in
the mid 1930's.) Leaving her children behind, she traveled to New York
City (1890), Glacier National Park and Yellowstone Park (1901), Alaska
(1913), and Yosemite (1914), each of which resulted in fresh scenery
for her to paint.
Remarkably, Barchus found time for leisurely
pursuits. One was writing poetry. These covered a variety of topics,
including war, friendship, and of course, nature's beauty. Many she
copyrighted, sometimes using her maiden name of Rosanna Lamb as a
pseudonym - Rosanna Lamb. And for some, at the cost of $24, she engaged
the music publishing company, Knickerbocker Harmony Studios of New
York, to have melodies composed and created for them, including such
poems as "When Our Eagle Gets Bill's Goat" and "Over the Hindenburg
Lane". She incorporated some of these creative writings incorporated
into her advertising material that promoted the sale of paintings.
By
the late 1920's Barchus was in her 70's. Her eyesight began to fail her
and arthritis progressively became a problem. The quality of her
paintings correspondingly suffered from crude execution of brush stroke
and lack of color blending. By the mid 30's she acknowledged that her
facilities would no longer enable her to continue painting. After fifty
years, and literally thousands of paintings- possibly as many as 7,500,
she quietly laid down her pallet and brushes. She died several years
later, in 1959, at the age of 102.
With unwavering support, the
artist's daughter continued to promote her mother's work. The purpose
was likely two-fold. First, there was a large inventory of unsold
paintings that needed to be sold. Second was her desire to honor the
artistic contribution her mother made to the state. She was ultimately
successful in both. In 1971 the Oregon State Legislature passed a
resolution giving Eliza Barchus the honorary title of The Oregon
Artist. Additionally, in 1974 she authored a biography about her
mother's life. Unfortunately for Oregon, about this same time she sold,
in mass, a significant portion of the unsold inventory, including some
that were prize pieces and covered the span of her career, to an East
Coast collector.
This current exhibit of works by Eliza
Barchus is the first major show since one organized by the Oregon
Society of Artists in 1971. Several paintings in this exhibit were
included in that exhibit, along with an earlier one-person show at the
1931 at the Portland Merchants' Exposition. The contributors are
excited to be able to bring back into the public the work of this
artist and would like to think the Pittock Mansion for their interest
and support in hosting this show. We hope that you enjoy the exhibit.
| |
Exhibition Record (Museums, Institutions and Awards):
Lewis and Clark Exposition, 1905; Pittock Mansion, 2002. |
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This biography from the Archives of AskART:
|  Born in Salt Lake City, UT on Dec. 4, 1857. Eliza Lamb married John Barchus in 1880 and settled in Portland, OR where she studied with Wm S. Parrott. Her landscapes of well-known scenic spots of Oregon, Alaska, and California, such as Mt Hood, Mt Shasta, Yosemite, Muir Glacier, and Crater Lake, brought her great renown. Having enjoyed a long painting career, she died in Portland on Dec. 31, 1959 at age 102. Exh: Portland Mechanics' Fair, 1887 (gold medal), 1888 (silver medal); NAD, 1890; Pan American Expo (Buffalo), 1901; Lewis & Clark Expo (Portland), 1905 (gold medal). In: Oregon Historical Society (Portland); Portland Museum; Bancroft Library (UC Berkeley). | Source:
Edan Hughes, "Artists in California, 1786-1940"
Eliza R. Barchus, The Oregon Artist; Women Artists of the American West; Oregonian, 1-1-1960, 1-5-1960 (obits). | | Nearly 20,000 biographies can be found in Artists in California 1786-1940 by Edan Hughes and is available for sale ($150). For a full book description and order information please click here. |
This biography from the Archives of AskART:
|  Born Salt Lake City, UT, Dec. 4, 1857; died Portland, OR, Dec. 31, 1959. Painter, specialized in landscapes. Grew up primarily in Abilene where her 17 step-father was a deputy to Marshall “Wild Bill” Hickok. Moved to Portland, OR in 1880 and took art training with William S. Parrott. Eventually, Barchus supported her family with her art but quit painting in the 1930s due to failing eyesight. | Source:
AWARDS:
Gold medal, Annual Portland Mechanics Fair, 1887; Silver medal, Annual Portland Mechanics Fair, 1888.
COLLECTIONS:
Oregon Historical Society; Vanderpoel Art Association Kovinick, Phil and Marian Yoshiki-Kovinick. An Encyclopedia of Women Artists of the American West. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1998., Phil and Marian Yoshiki-Kovinick, Phil and Marian Yoshiki-Kovinick. An Encyclopedia of Women Artists of the American West. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1998.. An Encyclopedia of Women Artists of the American West. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1998.; AskArt, www.askart.com, accessed Jan. 6, 2006; Barchus, Agnes. Eliza R. Barchus, The Oregon
SOURCES:
Susan Craig, "Biographical Dictionary of Kansas Artists (active before 1945)"
Artist, 1857-1959 (Portland, OR: Binford & Mort, 1974) | | This and over 1,750 other biographies can be found in Biographical Dictionary of Kansas Artists (active before 1945) compiled by Susan V. Craig, Art & Architecture Librarian at University of Kansas. |
| ** If you discover credit omissions or have additional information to add, please let us know at registrar@AskART.com. |
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Eliza Barchus is also mentioned in these AskART essays:
Notable Alaska
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