Signature and date ... This painting was trimmed unevenly
when we acquired it, and is displayed floated onto a
maroon matt to preserve the signature and date.
"Spring Landscape " 1944
Watercolor 15 x 19 1/2
$1,800
Virginia Chism Darce was a watercolorist and active in the Spokane, Washington area.
She contributed murals, stained glass murals, and mosaics at the historic Timberline Lodge on Mount Hood, Oregon, built by the WPA in 1936 and 1937. Virginia's famed Paul Bunyan Mural was featured in the concluding episode of the PBS series, Lodges of the Pacific Northwest, which visits historic lodges at Mount Rainier, Mount Hood, Oregon Caves, and Crater Lake. Further down this page are photos of her Timberline Lodge artwork and a shot of Virginia and her assistants working on the mural.Read More
In 1937, 27 year-old Virginia Darce was given an opportunity to create a Paul Bunyun mosaic mural for a bar in the WPA's Timberline Lodge, located on the snowy slopes of Oregon's Mount Hood.
At the time, Virginia probably gave no thought that 80 years hence, people would enter the Blue Ox Bar and marvel at her work. Like other WPA artists during the height of the Great Depression, she was pleased to have the work.
Working inside the Blue Ox Bar,
Virginia fits glass pieces onto the mural.
Virginia Darce Signature
Paul Bunyan Mural
Virginia had some experience working with glass. Virginia worked for the Fuller Glass Company of Portland. Previously she had done a 70 foot long mural for the Oregon City Library. When it came to creating a stained glass design for the Blue Ox Bar, she decided to do a mosaic in a technique called "opus sectile," used often in medieval and ancient mosaics where materials were cut into large irregular pieces and made into a picture. This technique is easily distinguished from the more familiar tessellated designs made of uniformly small pieces.
The famous Paul Bunyan Mural by Virginia Darce located in the Blue Ox Bar
at the Timberline Lodge on Mount Hood in Oregon. It was done in 1938 as part of the WPA.
Paul Bunyan Portrait in Glass
Side wall, Blue Ox Bar, Timberline Lodge
Cave like entrance
to the Timberline Lodge's Blue Ox Bar
Paul Bunyan and his Baby Blue Ox
Side wall, Blue Ox Bar, Timberline Lodge
The very bright and bold colors chosen by Virginia's for her mural really enlivened the small cave like space given for the Blue Ox Bar, noted by the rich blue of Babe the Blue Ox and the blazingly orange squares in Paul Bunyun's large flannel checker boarded shirt.
Since the Blue Ox Bar opened for business, it isn't too difficult to imagine generations of Oregonians enjoying a pint or two while admiring Virginia's work after a day on Mount Hood's slopes.
After the Mount Hood project, Virginia lived in Portland where she was manager for the Skidmore Fountain Artist Association. After the war, she was active in the Los Angeles area.
WPA era painting, Waterfront, 1938 by Virginia Darce Fine Arts Program, Gen. Services Administration
WPA era painting, The Market 1938 by Virginia Darce
Fine Arts Program, Gen. Services Administration
The Timberline Lodge today.
A History of the Art of the Timberline Lodge,
You may fast forward to Virginia Darce's mural, featured at 15:28 into this video.
Spring Landscape 1944, Virginia Darce
currently on view and available for sale
at
Bodega Bay Heritage Gallery,
California Women Artists Exhibition