The current edition of the
Ferndale Enterprise
takes note of the story from last week, “
Hobart’s Children
,” and takes issue with what is deemed misinformation regarding the painting above by Viola McBride.
The tangled story of the disposition of Hobart’s estate included a brief description of the tours of Hobart’s Galleries led by the Kinetic Rutabaga Queens the weekend after the trustee sale:
Throughout they told stories about art pieces that factored into the artist’s colorful history, among them a nude self-portrait of Viola McBride, the former owner of the building who essentially brought Hobart to town.
The following weekend, when the Queens returned to lead more tours, they found the gallery basically emptied, the paintings and sculptures gone. The McBride painting had been removed, along with paintings and sculptures from Hobart’s living quarters.
Some in Ferndale, including members of the McBride family, questioned whether Viola’s painting was in fact a self-portrait. The description came from
Kinetic Rutabaga Queen Shaye Harty
who, while leading one of those tours of Hobart’s Galleries, said,
One of the first things l like to point out is this self-portrait here by Viola Russ McBride. You can see she did it in 1977. I don’t know if you know the history, but she was the one who convinced Hobart to bring his gallery from Eureka to Ferndale. Together they did a lot of the restoration on Main Street. Some of the old ladies in town weren’t so happy that there were nude portraits in Hobart’s gallery, Viola, always a supporter of the arts, wasn’t going to have that. So she painted this picture of herself nude and had Hobart put it up right here so people walking by could see a self-portrait of Viola saying, ‘Hey old ladies, loosen up a bit.’
In retrospect I suppose it would have been better not to simply accept what she said as fact. From a quick
Google search
I learned that Viola Russ McBride died in October 1996 at the age of 90. (This came from a
UC Davis Magazine obit
that also noted, “Ms. McBride was one of the first women students at UC Davis and went on to break other gender barriers as the first woman president of the Humboldt County Cattlemen’s Association.”)
In 1977, Viola was 71 years old. So, it would indeed seem unlikely that the painting is a self-portrait. How might Shaye have made the mistake? Underneath the painting is a hand-written label that says, “Viola Russ McBride – Presented to Hobart Brown by Andy and JoAnn McBride,” and the painting is signed V. R. McBride. Was the label merely identifying the artist?
Shaye tells us that Hobart himself told her it was a painting of Viola. She also suggests that the painting might be Viola’s memory of what she looked like when she was younger. “I guess we’ll never know,” she concluded.
As noted in “Hobart’s Children,” the McBride painting was among the items that disappeared from the building in the period between the property sale and the court hearing regarding
Beltz v. Brown
. The nude was reportedly given to the McBride family under the assumption that the painting was merely loaned to Hobart. A press release received today from Justin Brown and the family trust asks anyone who was given paintings or other items from the gallery to contact trust representatives:
The Hobart Brown Trust would like to ask the public to help recover trust property. In the last year and with the increased activity since January 8th 2009, property has been sold and/or given away from Hobart Brown’s business and home located at 393 Main Street in Ferndale California. Some of this property includes sculptures and other works by Hobart Brown along with pieces by many other artists. Some but not all items were clearly marked on the back “Property of Hobart Brown,” “Hobart Galleries,” “Justin Hobart Brown” or “Maggie Brown McDaniel.” In addition to the artwork, family photo albums, scrapbooks and family heirlooms are missing, and we are trying to recover these personal items. We apologize if anyone was misled to believe these personal items were available to the public. If you have anything in your possession or know someone who has possession of such items from Hobart Galleries or Hobart’s home; if you know where any of our family’s legacy may be, please contact the trust at: hobartgalleries@msn.com or at (707) 444-3395. We would also like to thank those who have already stepped forward and spoke up in order to return items to the family.
This article appears in Love me, I’m a Lamprey.
thanks bob!! will work on the list and the photograph tonight….
I produced a documentary on Viola McBride in the months before she passed away. I was witness to her entire collection of photographs, as presented to me by Andy and Joanne McBride. I can tell you, she didn’t look at all like that painting. In the photographs I saw throughout her life, she had her hair cropped very close to her head. Viola described it as a boy-cut. But, I could be wrong. Perhaps it was when She and her husband Rex lived in Mexico or Ireland. Or, perhaps it was out at Bear River. But, I doubt it. Strongly. But, I could be wrong.
I think you are right. It seems clear from the pose, with the draped column, that this was something done with a model. It would not make sense to do a self portrait and pose yourself that way.
We subscribe to the Ferndale Enterprise and read the article. I have two items from Hobart:
1. A medal as Best Costume for me and Greg at one of the last Halloween Parties.
2. Hobart visited me in the hospital in 1997 while recovering from surgery and brought me a small sculpture
As of March 2013, this whole story comes to an end. The court case which had barely begun in this story was settled in October 2010 in favor of Beltz. Brown took the case to appeals where Brown lost his case. Beltz was found to have been in the property due to the actions and approval of the Brown Trust and to have stolen nothing from the Trust during her time of possession. Appeals court document “A132047.DOC” titled “Brown versus Beltz” can be found online through this link http://bit.ly/12OjWFi or by searching “Brown versus Beltz, California.”