Oregon Coast

Theodore Clement Steele, American, 1847–1926
1902
Oil on canvas
50.8 cm x 60.96 cm | 20.0 in x 24.0 in

T.C. Steele and his daughter Daisy boarded a train to the West Coast in June 1902. Though impressed by the Cascade Mountains, the Oregon Coast, where he painted every day near the twin resorts of Newport and Nye Creek Beach, stirred the artist’s inspiration.¹

He wrote, “I had gone to the coast unwillingly, but fell under the spell of its charm at once, and every day felt more and more the eternal challenge the ocean, like the atmosphere, makes to the painter and poet for a voice and interpretation.”²

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¹Rachel Berenson Perry, article written in conjunction with exhibit “Indiana Impressions: The Art of T.C. Steele”, an exhibition at the Eugene and Marilyn Glick Indiana History Center in Indianapolis, April 21, 2016 to July 7, 2016.

² T. C. Steele, “In the Far West” paper presented to The Portfolio, 1903. T.C. Steele collection, Indiana Historical Society archives.