Bird in the Night

Date1943

Maker Morris Graves American, born Fox Valley, Oregon, 1910; died Loleta, California, 2001

Label Text"Our world in the Far West. I lived in a remote and extremely quiet part of the state of Washington. It was all stony hills, scrubby forests, and mountains that deflected every sound. . . The sound carried clearly, intensely. Living alone in that forest—kerosene lights, lamps after dark—you spent a lot of time outside, just listening and hearing what happened in the night." (Morris Graves, 1974)

Our world in the Far West. I lived in a remote and extremely quiet part of the state of Washington. It was all stony hills, scrubby forests, and mountains that deflected every sound. . . The sound carried clearly, intensely. Living alone in that forest—kerosene lights, lamps after dark—you spent a lot of time outside, just listening and hearing what happened in the night.

— Morris Graves, 1974

Object number2005.169

Provenance[Willlard Gallery, New York, 1943]; Dr. Benjamin Philip Watson (d. 1976) and Angele Hamendt Watson (1886-1980), New York; {probably Willard Gallery, New York, in 1943}; purchased by Marshall and Helen Hatch, Seattle, Washington, by 1971

Photo CreditPhoto: Elizabeth Mann

Exhibition HistoryTacoma, Washington, Tacoma Art Museum, Morris Graves, Nov. 2-Nov. 30, 1971. Text by Jon W. Kowalek. No cat no., not reproduced [as Bird in Night]. Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Morris Graves and Northwest Masters, July 21 - Sept.17, 1972. [Morris Graves work on view until Aug. 13 only. Part of Seattle-wide Festival 1972 arts event.] Walla Walla, Washington, Olin Gallery, Whitman College, George Tsutakawa and Morris Graves: Paintings, Drawings & Sculpture, Nov. 5 - Nov. 26, 1978. No cat. no., not reproduced. Seattle, Washington, Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, Art in America: Washington Collection, Spiritualism in Northwest Art, July 22 - Aug. 29, 1982. Fresno, California, Fresno Art Museum, Fifteen Profiles: Distinguished California Modernists, Nov. 7, 1995 - Feb. 7, 1996. Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, SAM at 75: Building a Collection for Seattle, May 5, 2007 - Sept.9, 2007. No catalogue. Seattle, Seattle Art Museum, Modernism in the Pacific Northwest; The Mythic and the Mystical, June 19-Sept. 7, 2014. Text by Patricia Junker. No cat. no., reproduced p. 27, pl. 13.

Credit LineGift of the Marshall and Helen Hatch Collection, in honor of the 75th Anniversary of the Seattle Art Museum

Dimensions23 1/2 x 29 in. (59.7 x 73.7 cm)

MediumTransparent and opaque watercolor on Japanese paper