Night Sky No. 2

Date1944

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

Label TextGraves’s work reflects his deep connection to the landscape of the Pacific Northwest. In 1938, he purchased a tract in a remote sector of the Skagit Valley and built a home and studio there, which he called “The Rock.” Graves became fascinated with how the hills, forests, and mountains around the property deflected every sound, no matter how distant, particularly at night: “You could hear the cattle, or a dog barking, from a great distance. The sound carried clearly, intensely. Living alone in that forest . . . you spent a lot of time outside, just listening and hearing what happened in the night—the forest creatures.” His paintings from this period evoke these heightened hours of darkness, when even a silent snake might be audible, slithering and coiling through the grass of a nocturnal field.

Object number2005.171

ProvenanceThe artist; to Marshall and Helen Hatch, Seattle, Washington, 1989; to Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, 2005

Photo CreditPhoto: Elizabeth Mann

Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, American Art: The Stories We Carry, Oct. 20, 2022 - ongoing.

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

Dimensions52 1/4 x 26 7/8 in. (132.7 x 68.3 cm)

MediumInk and transparent and opaque watercolor on toned Japanese paper