Hilbert Spotlight: “Hidden Kingdom”

This month we feature the Hilbert Collection’s “Hidden Kingdom,” circa 1930, oil and gold leaf on panel, by Jessie Arms Botke. 

California artist Jessie Hazel Arms Botke achieved great popularity beginning in the 1930s for her elegant paintings of birds, particularly the classic Art Deco avian subjects: herons, peacocks, egrets, flamingos and cockatoos. Due to her early training in decorative arts and as a tapestry designer with Herter Looms in New York City, her bird paintings often resemble Asian screens or scroll designs, gleaming with real gold and silver leaf meticulously applied by hand. They are fantasies of nature, the birds portrayed realistically but also with decorative intent, posed with studied grace against lush foliage and flowers.

Botke and her husband, fellow artist Cornelius Botke, were prominent members of the artists’ colony in Carmel, California before moving to Los Angeles for a brief period and finally settling on a ranch they acquired in Santa Paula.  There, Jessie maintained her own aviary stocked with exotic birds, so she could study and paint them.

In addition to her famous bird paintings, which today continue in popularity and command tens of thousands of dollars at auction, Jessie Botke also painted many other subjects, including landscapes, views of the California missions and images of Native American life.  

“Hidden Kingdom” is currently on view in the Hilbert Museum’s Permanent Collection galleries, along with other outstanding pieces from the Hilbert Collection, which change frequently. In addition to the Permanent Collection, the major exhibitions currently at the Hilbert are “Monica Edwards: Slices of Life,” (opening Jan. 14 and on view through May 2), “Los Angeles Area Scene Paintings” (through May 2), “The Magic and Flair of Disney’s Mary Blair” (extended through March 7) and “A Fine Romance: Images of Love in Classic American Illustration” (through March 7).  

Display image at top/ Jessie Arms Botke (1883-1971), “Hidden Kingdom,” c. 1930, oil and gold leaf on panel. The Hilbert Collection.