Since it is Women in History Month, I thought I’d share about a woman who is no longer well-known, but her career added beauty to the world around her.
Eliza Barchus was an artist who eventually became known as “The Oregon Artist.”
Born in 1857 in Salt Lake City, Utah, Eliza didn’t recall much about her father, other than that he died when she was young. When she was seventeen, she wed John Lansing. The couple had two children, one of whom died in infancy, before the marriage “failed” and they divorced. Eliza then wed John Barchus and the couple moved to Portland with her daughter Isabel in 1880. They had a daughter who died at birth, then a son, Harold, and another daughter, Agnes.
With an admiration for Western landscapes, Eliza began taking art lessons in 1884 from Will S. Parrott, who was known at the time as the “foremost artist” of Portland.” Eliza sold her first painting of Mount Rainier for $1 a year later.
In 1887 she won a gold medal at the Portland Mechanics Fair Art Exhibition for a painting of Mount Hood.
In 1890, a large oil painting she’d made of Mount Hood was displayed in New York City at the National Academy of Design and was considered quite an honor. It was also that year that several of her paintings were displayed at the Portland Hotel at the cigar and souvenir concession area. Her husband, who suffered from ill health, went south in the winter and persuaded an art emporium in Los Angeles to sell her paintings as well.
To supplement the family income, Eliza began to barter paintings for work by carpenters, plumbers, and other tradesmen as well as professional services from a dentist and physician. Eliza also sold her paintings, but to create additional income she sold modestly priced color postcards and illustrated brochures with reproductions of her work. Those marketing techniques helped immensely when her husband passed in 1899 and Eliza became the sole supporter of her family.
She produced thousands of paintings in what was referred to as an “assembly line” style of working on several canvases at once, doing similar parts on each canvas, that kept a roof over their heads, but was sometimes criticized. She advertised her paintings in catalogs and developed a good business through the mail.
In 1901, Eliza exhibited several paintings at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. Four years later, she won a gold medal at the Lewis & Clark Centennial Exposition in Portland for a collection of her Pacific coast landscapes.
Through the 1920s, Eliza traveled the Western United States, painting everything from the Cascade Range volcanoes to the Columbia Gorge, Yellowstone Falls, Yosemite National Park, San Francisco Bay, and hundreds of other locations.
She worked primarily with oils through the 1930s. Her career ended in 1935 when arthritis and failing eyesight made it impossible for her to continue painting. She lived to the age of 102. Eleanor Roosevelt marked Eliza’s 100th birthday in her syndicated column. Eliza had a long career, sustained by her business intelligence and her talent and skill.
After her death, the Oregon Legislative Assembly declared her “The Oregon Artist.” Today, examples of her work may be found in art collections in Portland and around the country.
Do you have a favorite artist?
What do you love most about their artwork?
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