OREGON — The Eagle’s Nest Art Gallery recently benefited from retired Northern Illinois University geology professor, Jonathan Berg’s donation of three paintings. The paintings are all works by the same artist, Henry Howard Bagg. Two are local scenes representative of Bagg’s early work: Black Hawk Bluff in 1887, and Castle Rock Bluff in 1888. The third painting depicts the 1927 transatlantic flight of the Spirit of St. Louis. As Bagg died in 1928, this was certainly one of his last paintings.
According to Berg, both of the landscapes were originally owned by Benjamin Franklin Sheets. Colonel Sheets was an active citizen in 19th century Oregon. A town dignitary, Sheets delivered the speech at the 1880 dedication of Margaret Fuller Island.
Before he became a prominent Nebraska artist, H.H. Bagg lived in the greater Chicago area. Here he painted landscapes and rubbed elbows with students and faculty of Chicago’s Art Institute. He paid frequent visits to scenic Oregon and gave painting lessons locally.
This pair of historic landscape paintings confirms that the Rock River in Oregon has long fascinated artists; a decade before Art-Institute-affiliated artists chose Oregon as the site of their colony, H.H. Bagg fixed his artist’s eye on the bluff where Lorado Taft’s statue of Black Hawk would one day stand.
Currently the two local landscapes are on display at the Oregon Public Library District’s Eagle’s Nest Art Gallery. In case you did not know, Oregon is home to some of Illinois’ best art. The library’s upper floor was originally designed to display art and was officially dedicated in 1918 as the Eagle’s Nest Art Gallery. Many of the works hanging in the gallery today were donated by members of the historically significant Eagle’s Nest Art Colony, which was locally active between 1898 and 1942.
Today, people come from the world over to visit Oregon's Eagle’s Nest Art Gallery and see works by renowned artists such as Lorado Taft, Ralph Clarkson, Oliver Dennett Grover, and Nellie Verne Walker. One of the gallery’s most well-known works is Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida’s portrait of Ralph Clarkson, which has been featured in international exhibits.
Come by the library and see these local treasures for yourself. (Hours Monday-Thursday 9 a.m. – 8 p.m., and Friday and Saturday 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.)
