Celebrate the Season
Western Solitude: The Paintings of William Samual Parrott
At the Pittock Mansion July 12 through Oct. 31, 2008
The works of early Oregon artist, William Samuel Parrott will be featured through the summer at Portland’s historic Pittock Mansion. Popular among collectors who love Western landscapes, William Parrott is internationally considered a notable painter.
Parrott traveled across the Oregon Trail with his family at age 4 in 1847. Once grown, he studied and painted the landscape. He first learned to paint with the Klickitat tribe and then studied examples of landscape artists Albert Bierstadt and Gilbert Munger. As with most Western artists, the grandeur of the region provided all the inspiration needed, and Parrott created a most unusual style of simplified but majestic solitude. By 1867, he established a studio in Portland where remained for 20 years.
The Pittock Mansion’s exhibit of more than 25 works illustrates the ethereal Parrott, the romance not in his painting, but in the subject matter itself. It shows the detailed Parrott, grounded in dynamic geology leaning toward expressionism. It reveals the William Parrot who painted mainly for himself, who saw his own signature as a mar upon his canvas and himself as an intruder into the solitude of his subject.
Pittock Mansion presents, “Western Solitude: The paintings of William Samuel Parrott from July 12 through October 31.This exhibit is included with regular admission: $7 for adults, $6 for seniors, $4 for children 6-18, free for Pittock Mansion members.
The Pittock Mansion is located two miles west of downtown, off West Burnside, at 3229 N.W. Pittock Drive. Call 503-823-3623 or visit www.pittockmansion.org