Out on the bluffs overlooking the eastern end of the Columbia River Gorge through the Cascade mountains stands the Maryhill Art Museum, once the mansion of railroad lawyer Samuel Hill, son-in-law of Great Northern Railroad baron James J. Hill.
But Hill was a bit of an art fan and befriended Queen Marie of Roumania and dancer Loïe Fuller on his swings through Europe. And a lot of their stuff ended up in his mansion at Maryhill. Don’t ask my how or why.
But the great thing about Maryhill Art Museum is that it lives completely outside of the Official Art Museum Narrative approved by all the art experts.
Here’s an example. The museum has a show now through November 15, 2023 of paintings by R. H. Ives Gammell inspired by the poem “The Hound of Heaven” by English poet Francis Thompson. It seems that Thompson was a Thing at the turn of the 20th century; J.R.R. Tolkien was a fan of Thompson. The paintings were completed in 1956 and are realist with weird 2-dimensional symbols in the foreground. The paintings are out of line with the Approved Narrative of the Art Museum Directors of the world: trust me.
The permanent collection has a bunch of furniture from Queen Marie, memorabilia of dancer Loïe Fuller, and sculptures and drawings of Rodin. Then there is Théâtre de la Mode with post-World War II French haute couture fashions on one-third-life-size human mannequins. All of which are out-of-joint with the taste and the mood of your modern art museum curator. There are even a bunch of recent portraits in the old realist style.
Finally, there is a collection of chess sets, from the ordinary to the ridiculous.