Inner Eye Eagle with Chalice

Date1941

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

Label TextIt is possible that the allusion here is to St. John the Evangelist, in the form of an eagle, who according to legend, when offered a chalice of poisoned wine, blessed it and thereby raised its deadly contents in the form of a snake. The tension in Graves’ image comes from the anticipation of the eagle’s action—will the evil be revealed? "I paint to evolve a changing language of symbols, a language with which to remark upon the qualities of our mysterious capacities . . ." (Morris Graves, 1942)

Object number2009.52.15

ProvenanceMrs. Elizabeth Bayley Willis (1902-2003), Bainbridge Island, Washington by 1966-?; Marshall and Helen Hatch, Seattle, Washington

Photo CreditPhoto: Elizabeth Mann

Exhibition HistoryIn chronological order: Eugene, Oregon, University of Oregon, Morris Graves: A Retrospective, February 8-March 13, 1966. Essay texts by Wallace S. Baldinger, Nancy Wilson Ross, Virginia Haseltine, Gerald Heard and Morris Graves. Cat. no. 57, p. 24, reproduced.

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

Dimensions15 1/2 x 21 in. (39.4 x 53.3 cm)

MediumOpaque watercolor on architectural tracing paper