Virginia Frederick Large
Virginia Frederick was born April 16th, 1914 in Portland, Oregon. She moved with her family to Chicago, Illinois when she was a young girl. From there she found her calling as an artist when she won her first drawing contest at the age of 10. She received a scholarship to the Chicago Art Institute for Saturday classes. She had lied about her age to be eligible for the scholarship that was only given to children over the age of twelve. Virginia continued her career as an artist by working for a commercial
artist in Chicago.
Frederick came to Wyoming in the 1930s to paint and spent a summer on the Cecil Ryan ranch. In 1941 she married William Large of Saratoga, Wyoming. For the next thirty years they managed their ranch located on Cedar Creek. Along with ranching Virginia kept painting. She concentrated on painting mountain scenes, animals, and portraits. She has been praised for her realistic paintings of the Wyoming landscape
and people. Virginia not only sold her paintings for money she also traded many of her works of art for items needed for their ranch such as, cattle, machinery, and even a movie projector.
Virginia Frederick Large continued to paint until stricken with Multiple Sclerosis. Soon after her diagnosis of MS she passed away at the age of 68 in 1982.