Henry Wood Elliott (1846 – 1930)
Mount Rainier from Lake Washington, circa 1900
Watercolor on paper

From the estate of Henry Wood Elliott.

Henry Wood Elliott is best known as the savior of Alaska’s fur seal population, but he was also one of the finest watercolorists to work in the Territory. A Cleveland native, Elliott first visited Alaska in 1867 with the Western Union Telegraph Survey, just two years before serving as official artist for F.V. Hayden’s U.S. Geological Survey expedition to the western United States.

He was sent north again in 1872 as U.S. Treasury Agent supervising the Alaska Commercial Company’s management of the fur seal industry in the Pribilof Islands. He visited Alaska regularly thereafter, spending much of the rest of his life fighting in Congress to reverse the practices that had led to disastrous declines in the northern fur seal population.

Elliott traveled more extensively in the Territory than any other late nineteenth-century artist, from Southeast Alaska to the Arctic Ocean. He also produced many images of Mt. Rainier and environs in the Pacific Northwest. A prolific artist, he made striking watercolors of landscapes, villages, and animal life wherever he went.

Varying widely in scale and level of detail, Elliott’s work ranges from spare to dramatic. It is characterized by clear topographical observation and a light, sure touch. Important collections of his work are held by museums in Alaska, Washington, Massachusetts, and Ohio.

Biography courtesy of Braarud Fine Art.