Fra Dana: American Impressionist in the Rockies, December 2, 2011 -
February 25, 2012 Meloy Gallery

Fra Dana (1874-1948), a cattle rancher who lived near Great Falls, was one of the leading artists of the Rocky Mountain Northwest at the turn of the twentieth century.  Born in Terre Haute, Indiana on November 26, 1874, Dana studied art at the Cincinnati Art Academy, the Art Institute of Chicago and New York School of Art.  In 1893, Dana moved with her family to Parkman, Wyoming and met her future husband, Edwin L. Dana.  The two married in 1896 and worked together to develop what was by 1918 America’s largest purebred Hereford operation in Montana and Wyoming.  Her desire to study and create art was often in conflict with her obligation as a ranch wife.

Dana traveled annually to major urban centers such as New York City, London and Paris to pursue her artistic studies.  During her life, she associated with Mary Cassatt, Gertrude Stein, Alfred Maurer and Joseph Henry Sharp and was a student of William Merritt Chase.  Her bequest to the Montana Museum of Art & Culture’s Permanent Collection in 1948 of her own artworks as well as those by some of history’s most accomplished artists is central to the richness of the MMAC Permanent Collection and integral to the development of American art.  Her collection includes traditional Japanese prints, a large number of prints by Honoré Daumier and Jean Louis Forain and paintings by Joseph Henry Sharp, Alfred Maurer, William Merritt Chase, Douglas John Connah, Elling William Gollings and others.

The Montana Museum of Art & Culture is pleased to announce the forthcoming publication of the first-ever full biography of Dana, authored by Sue Hart, Professor of English, Montana State University – Billings and Dr. Valerie Hedquist, Associate Professor of Art History and Criticism, The University of Montana and edited by Caroline Patterson.

Frances Carroll Brown: Bitterroot Portraits, December 2, 2011 - February 25, 2012 Paxson Gallery
Granddaughter of Marcus Daly, Frances Carroll Brown had strong ties to Montana and the Bitterroot Valley.  She regularly visited the Stock Farm outside of Hamilton to attend social events and celebrate holidays.  She traveled to Europe and lived in France before fleeing at the onset of WWII. Her psychological portraits are artistically and historically significant, ranging in subject from workers and day laborers to members of high society.  Brown’s work is fundamentally humanistic, revealing a fascination with a variety of racial, religious and class background, emphasizing the essential unity of people everywhere.  Frances Carroll Brown’s art contributes to an expanding category of significant female artists who played a compelling role in Montana art history.