Franz R. and Kathryn M. Stenzel Collection of Western American Art Addition

Dr. Franz Stenzel, a Portland, Oregon physician and one of the foremost authorities on early art of the Pacific Northwest, was born March 8, 1906 in Aberdeen, Washington. Two years later his family moved to Portland, where he would spend most of his life. He graduated from Bates College in 1933, and attended Harvard Medical School, studying internal medicine and specializing in cardiology. After working for nine years in Boston, he returned to Portland in 1946, where he entered private practice and was on the staff of Good Samaratin Hospital until his retirement in 1970. He also served as an instructor in cardiology at the University of Oregon Medical School, and became President of the Oregon Society of Internal Medicine.

Dr. Stenzel married Kathryn Marie Mathison in 1951 and the couple began collecting art of the American Northwest in 1955 after Dr. Stenzel was given a painting by a patient. While amassing a collection that eventually included approximately 2500 works of art, Dr. Stenzel became an authority on the early pictorial art of the Northwest, specializing in the period between 1800 and 1950. Research done while investigating sources for their collection evolved into a projected book on artists born before 1900 who worked in Washington, Oregon, Montana, Wyoming, southern British Columbia, and southern Alberta. Though this book was never published, research for this book contributed to his studies of two prominent Northwest artists: Cleveland Rockwell, Scientist and Artist, 1837-1907 (Portland, Or.: Oregon Historical Society, 1972) and James Madison Alden, Yankee Artist of the Pacific Coast, 1854-1860 (Fort Worth: Amon Carter Museum, 1975).

As an expert in his field, Dr. Stenzel was often called upon to give lectures and advice. He also wrote the text of several exhibition catalogues. Another offshoot of Dr. Stenzel's collecting was an interest in art restoration, a skill he taught himself. He constructed a conservation studio in his basement, which may be seen in an April 13, 1959 Life magazine article.

Works from the Stenzels' collection were exhibited many times, including major exhibits at the Amon Carter Museum, the Cheney Cowles Memorial Museum in Spokane, the Montana Historical Society, the Museum of Art at the University of Oregon, Eugene, and the Portland Art Museum. In 1973, four Stenzel pieces were the only privately owned art included in the first art exhibit by the United States Information Agency shown in former communist countries since World War II. Over the years, the Stenzels donated pieces of their collection to the C.M. Russell Gallery, the Montana Historical Society, the Oregon Historical Society, the Alaska State University in College, Alaska. In addition, the Stenzels offered 206 works of art for sale at a Sotheby's sale in Los Angeles June 24, 1980.

Dr. Stenzel died March 29, 1998 in Portland, Oregon at age 92, after a long illness. Mrs. Stenzel passed away in 2006.