Grace Carpenter Hudson (1865–1937)
431 South Main Street, Ukiah, CA 95482
707-467-2836
ABOUT
The Grace Hudson Museum & Sun House is a premier cultural destination for understanding and appreciating the artwork and legacy of early California painter Grace Carpenter Hudson (1865-1937); the basketry, history, and lifeways of Pomo peoples, the original inhabitants of the area; and exhibitions and programs focusing on the contemporary fine arts and crafts of Mendocino County.
Dating from 1986, the Museum consists of four exhibit galleries. It is situated on a beautiful four-acre campus that includes the Sun House, the 1911 Craftsman redwood bungalow that served as Grace Hudson’s home and studio for over 25 years. The house is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is a California Historical Landmark. Visitors can also enjoy the Wild Gardens, an outdoor educational environment featuring plants and habitats indigenous to the region. These gardens provide opportunities to learn more about Pomo cultural traditions and sustainable land management practices.
SPECIAL RESOURCES
“A picture is such a personal thing–the companion of years…. It may not show the labor, in fact after the labor is done we labor to conceal the labor–but it is all there.”
— Grace Hudson
Grace Hudson (1865–1937)
Grace Carpenter was born to well-educated pioneer parents in rural Mendocino County, California. Her talent for drawing was cultivated in the 1880s through professional training at the California School of Design. There, she excelled in portraiture. Soon after her studies, she returned to her parents’ Mendocino County home in Ukiah where she gave painting lessons and helped in her parents’ photography studio. In 1890 she married John Hudson — a physician with a deep passion for ethnography — and the couple made a life in Ukiah.
With John’s encouragement, Grace began painting the local Pomo Indian peoples, whom she had known since childhood. She went on to develop a national reputation as a painter of Native American subjects. Though she worked primarily in oils, Grace also produced lovely watercolors, pen and ink illustrations, and drawings in charcoal, pencil, and crayon. Today, she enjoys ongoing recognition for her portrayals of Native peoples.
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Grace Carpenter Hudson grew up in Ukiah, California, a small frontier town, in the second half of the 19th century. Her parents, A. O. and Helen Carpenter, ran a studio photography business from their house, producing images of settlers, farming, logging and railroad industries, and the local Pomo peoples. Early in life, Grace assisted her parents in the studio by hand-coloring images. Seeing in her a keen aptitude for drawing and painting, Grace’s parents enrolled her in the California School of Design in San Francisco when she was in her early teens.
Grace grew up knowing many Pomo families. Those contacts later gave her and Dr. John Hudson, her ethnographer husband, the access they needed to document Pomo culture through her portraiture and through his research of their basketry, language, and customs. As one of the first women artists to paint Native Americans, she brought a new, intimate, and compassionate approach to depicting Native peoples. This unique perspective propelled her career to great success. The local Pomo affectionately came to call her “The Painter Lady.”
Though she was best-known as a painter, Grace worked in other media. In the 1890s, she illustrated a number of articles in Overland Monthly and other national magazines. She also designed rugs that were produced locally by hand. In the early 1930s, Grace designed and patented a family of rabbit boudoir dolls displayed in a pastoral wooded setting, and also created a prototype for a ceramic rabbit garden sculpture. She used her photography skills throughout her career to document the people who appear in her paintings, as well as her finished artwork.
Around 1910, the Hudsons, together with regional architect George Wilcox, set out to design and build a custom redwood, Craftsman-style home that included a modern painting studio. It was constructed just down the street from her parents’ home and the site of her first studio. The house was completed in 1911 and named the “Sun House.” Fairly modest in size, it nonetheless accommodated Grace’s prodigious artistic output and John’s sizeable ethnographic collections. The interior also reflects the couple’s aesthetic, such as light fixtures designed by Grace and inspired by the shape of acorns. With the exception of short periods in Hawaii, Oklahoma, and Chicago, the bulk of Grace’s paintings and drawings were produced in the neighboring Ukiah studios. Her artwork dating from 1912 and beyond are from her time in the Sun House.
