Raymond Bice’s Winter Painting

Amy Vach

Catalog Number: 2017.002.01

While snow can sometimes be an annoyance, it’s also hard to complain about the fairyland scenery a new snowfall can create.

Raymond Bice captured this beautiful local scene in a painting that he gifted to one of his friends, Florence Young.

This watercolor, which measures 6.75 inches-by-4.75 inches, features a green home with a red barn surrounded by trees covered with a blanket of snow. In the bottom right corner, the painting is signed: Ray Bice 1988.

Raymond Bice was born in La Crosse in 1896. Throughout his 98 years as a resident of La Crosse County, Ray Bice wore many hats. In addition to being an artist, he was a World War I veteran, state legislator, builder and businessman, civic leader, writer and an occasional magician.

Bice witnessed nearly a century of history. During his life, he heard President William Howard Taft’s speech at the dedication of the YMCA in La Crosse in 1909 and saw the first airplane land in La Crosse in 1911.

As a state legislator, in the 1940s, Bice proposed a Wisconsin speed limit for rural roads. Before 1949, there were speed limits in towns and cities, but not on country roads. The law stated that people were not permitted to drive “carelessly and heedlessly” on highways.

Later in his life, he began writing articles about local history for the La Crosse Tribune and authored two books about his reminiscences: “A Century to Remember” and “Years to Remember.”

Bice began painting in 1938, but he didn’t seriously begin making artwork until the late 1960s. He painted scenes for his Christmas cards, and other artwork became gifts like this one that he gave to his friend Florence Young, now in the collection of the La Crosse County Historical Society.

This article was originally published in the La Crosse Tribune on December 6, 2019.

This object can be viewed in our online collections database by clicking here.

Hixon House Sitting Room Wallpaper

Peggy Derrick

Wallpaper: Could anything be more boring? And, is it even an artifact? Can’t you just go buy more of the same thing? No, yes and maybe.

Wallpaper is a quintessential element of Victorian interiors. There was an explosion of designs and colors in the mid-1800s, as new fabric printing technologies were applied to the production of wallpaper.

Until then, it had been a laborious process, limited to simple patterns and limited colors. At the same time, the cost of wallpaper was going down, making it the wallcovering of choice for the middle-class homemaker with good taste. It was a practical solution that nevertheless produced a beautiful, aesthetically pleasing home.

Historic Hixon House presently sports nine different wallpapers and one hand-painted mural as wall finishes.

There are two more bedrooms and a servants’ area that most likely also had wallpaper in 1910, the year the house presently interprets.

Some of the wallpapers in the house are reproductions of the originals. Others, such as this one in the family sitting room, are the original papers, now more than 100 years old.

During the 2004 restoration, this paper was professionally cleaned and conserved, and some design elements that had rubbed off were painstakingly touched up with hand painting.

The family sitting room was remodeled in 1900, at the same time as the formal parlor, the dining room and the Turkish Nook. Even more than the parlor, it reflects the touch of Joseph Twyman, the interior decorator from the Toby Furniture Company.

With its interlocking pattern of large swirling leaves and beautiful natural shades of green, this wallpaper is a classic example of the Arts and Crafts movement developed in England by designer William Morris and popularized in the Upper Midwest by his pupil Twyman.

Various curators and researchers have looked for this paper in the catalogs of Morris’ designs and concluded that it is not an original design by him but rather a well-done knock-off.

This is the room that the Hixon family would have used daily. It has comfortable seating and built-in bookcases. The leafy greens of the wallpaper bring nature into the room, and the overall effect is a relaxed, inviting space.

This article was originally published in the La Crosse Tribune on November 30, 2019.

Ellen Hixon’s Morris chair

Peggy Derrick

This armchair, with its adjustable back, was first developed around 1865 by a designer at the William Morris design firm in England.

You could think of it as an ancestor of today’s La-Z-Boy, or other overstuffed loungers usually found positioned in front of a television set.

This early lounger had a back that pivoted, to slant back to the degree desired, held in place by a series of holes and pegs. The design was immediately very popular, and in no time it became ubiquitous, with many different styles and iterations.

One apparent consistency: The chair was invariably upholstered, or provided with cushions, for the seat and back, and often the arms as well. It was a smart, simple design, intended for comfort, and to blend in to a variety rooms.

The lady in the photo is Mrs. Ellen Hixon, wife of local lumber baron Gideon Hixon. The year is 1907, and she is relaxing in her Morris chair in front of the fireplace in the formal parlor of her home at 429 N. Seventh St. in La Crosse. She is all dressed up, with pretty shoes and a fancy hat, leading me to assume she is on her way out to a social event.

When I show this image to visitors to Historic Hixon House, I like to point out that Mrs. Hixon does not look entirely comfortable in her “laid-back” position.

That is most likely because she would have been wearing a corset under her fancy dress, and her ability to bend at the waist would have been quite restricted.

Her subtle stiffness adds to the impression that she was a woman in command in her natural environment.

The formal parlor, with its elegant furnishings, was intended for company and major family events. It had been redecorated seven years earlier, in 1900, and the Morris chair, along with several other pieces of furniture in the room, were purchased at that time from the Toby Furniture Co. in Chicago.

Ellen Hixon was a widow by then; her husband, Gideon, had died in 1892, and she missed him terribly.

She filled her time in the following 21 years with her sons and their families; travel, especially in the winter months; and making improvements to her home and garden in La Crosse. She was active in her church and in a variety of local charities. Today she is mostly remembered for saving Grandad Bluff from quarrying by purchasing it, and leaving it to the city of La Crosse with the stipulation that it always be a park.

The Morris chair is just one of many Arts and Crafts elements in the design of the room. The British decorator Joseph Twyman was associated with the Toby Company, and he was employed by Mrs. Hixon to oversee the decoration.

Twyman was a student of William Morris, and was instrumental in bringing those design principals to the Upper Midwest. Today Historic Hixon House is a rare, original example of Arts and Crafts décor surviving in our region.

We like to share this image with visitors to Historic Hixon House because it drives home the point that nearly all of the furnishings in this room are original: If you can find it in the picture, you will probably be able to find it in the room (except of course, for Mrs. Hixon herself, who passed away in 1913).

This article was originally published in the La Crosse Tribune on November 23, 2019.