Governor's Gallery

Augusta Metcalfe
Painter of the Prairies: 1881-1971

January 17 thru March 18, 2005

Augusta Isabella Corson Metcalfe sketched everything she saw on the land her family homesteaded. Her mother recognized her youngest daughter’s artistic talent and began to cultivate it. Her subjects were horses, dogs, calves being born and cattle being rounded up in western Oklahoma but only at the end of a long day of household chores. She let nothing get in the way of her passions -- the land and painting.

She exhibited her work as early as 1911, and won prizes at state fairs in Oklahoma and Texas. She drew statewide attention when six of her oil paintings were exhibited at the Oklahoma State Fair. A review published by The Oklahoma Publishing Company noted that “Mrs. Metcalfe and her mother work the farm themselves. They plow the land, harrow it and sow the crops in spring, watch them grow during the summer, care for the cattle and chickens, and harvest the crop in the fall . . . With all this work, Mrs. Metcalfe must pursue her study of art at night, and she manages to give unfailingly one hour to her brush and canvas every evening.”

Metcalfe began a tradition that would make her famous across the nation as she wrote letters to friends with finely detailed pen and ink drawings and watercolors. Her artworks were the subject of several articles in magazines including the Farmer’s Stockman, Oklahoma Today and Life magazine. Eventually, Metcalfe became known as the “Sagebrush Artist” and the “Grandma Moses of the West.” She ultimately received several honors, including induction into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame and the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame. “The Shaw Round Up,” one of Metcalfe’s paintings included in the Oklahoma State Art Collection, is a part of this exhibit.

David Cunningham, director of the Metcalfe Museum in Durham, Oklahoma, said that her best works are her pen and ink and other drawings produced in her late teens and twenties. “Although she had no formal training as an artist, she produced many critically recognized artworks and recorded the history of western Oklahoma for generations to come,” said Cunningham.

The Metcalfe Museum, located on the original homestead in Roger Mills County, is the repository for much of Metcalfe’s art. For more information, call the museum at (508) 655-4467 or go to www.metcalfemuseum.org.

Sponsored by the Oklahoma Arts Council. For more information contact Scott Cowan or Karen Sharp at 405.521.2931 or scott@arts.ok.gov

Past Governor's Gallery Exhibits