"The Willamette River from Inspiration Point"
by Theodore Gegoux   (1850 - 1931)
Photo by Theodore Gegoux © All Rights Reserved - 2001

Oil on board, 18 inches by 47 1/2 inches, oil on masonite board, completed in about 1920, unsigned.  The perspective of this painting appears to be from "Inspiration Point" looking east.  This painting hung over the fireplace in the memorial house during the later part of Gégoux's tenure as caretaker of Champoeg Park.  It was offered for sale with 13 other small paintings in 1925.  George Elwood Abernethy acquired the painting from Gégoux at Champoeg.   Elwood left the painting to his daugther Ellene Abernethy who married and became Mrs. George Parsons.  Ellene had the painting treated by Joan Samuels of the Portland Art Association in 1981, and upon Ellene's death in the year 2000, the painting was inherited by Ida Tetro.
Gégoux filed for a copyright on "The Inception of the Birth of Oregon" in January of 1920.  By this time he had finished the essential work and revisions of his masterpiece.  Although Gegoux did not sign and date his masterpiece until 1923 when he and his son Frank completed the frame, it is clear that he considered it sufficiently complete to take up other projects.  My grateful appreciation to Nap & Ida Tetro for their permission to photograph this painting and for providing provenance information.