American artist Edward T. Grigware is renowned for his murals.
By the time he died in Cody in 1960, his work was featured in banks, hospitals, and Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) chapels from Chicago to Los Angeles and as far as Hawaii.
Grigware’s most celebrated Wyoming mural depicting the history of the LDS church is on display in the Historic Cody Mural and Museum.
It’s an excellent example of the painter’s commitment to realism in an age when the trendiest art was increasingly abstract.
However, there’s one painting in Grigware’s portfolio that’s full of realism — but a lot cheekier than anything else he ever did.
“Bottoms Up,” his 1940s painting of four curvaceous cowgirls wearing nothing by chaps from the waist down showing their bare bottoms, is Grigware’s only nude.
“It certainly made going into the lounge at the Holiday Inn worthwhile,” said Mack Frost, digital technician at the McCracken Research Library at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West. “It was quite the topic of conversation.”
The painting is no longer hanging in the Holiday Inn and hasn’t been seen in years, which now has turned the conversation to whatever happened to “Bottoms Up?"
Accomplished Artist
Grigware was already an accomplished artist when he moved to Cody in 1936.
He got his education at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts, and his work had been exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago when he was wooed out to Wyoming by Mary Allen Jester, one of the founders of the Buffalo Bill Museum, now the Buffalo Bill Center of the West.
Initially skeptical of living in Wyoming, Grigware quickly came to love the state's landscapes and lived the rest of his life in Cody.
During that time, he was commissioned to do several murals in Cody and elsewhere.
“He did murals at the Cody Masonic Temple, the old Cody hospital, and the Cody Mural Chapel,” Frost said. “He wasn't a combat artist, but he replicated many of the naval battles that occurred during World War II.”
Grigware spent most of the 1940s working on commissions from the U.S. Navy, which were used for posters and other promotional material.
In the late 1940s, the LDS Church commissioned him to paint a 360-degree mural depicting the church’s history in the 36-foot-wide, 18-foot-tall rotunda of its then-new Cody chapel. The finished mural was unveiled in 1951.
According to the Historic Cody Mural and Museum, Grigware spent a year researching the church’s history, as he was not a member, and painted the mural on pure Irish linen, “the choicest of artists’ canvas,” which was hard to come by at the time.
“It's pretty fantastic,” Frost said.
It was around this time as well in the mid-to-late 1940s that Grigware finished an entirely different kind of commission.
His work went from sacred to what some would consider sacrilegious.
Getting To The Bottom Of It
The story of how “Bottoms Up” came to be is tricky to piece together. There are several accounts of dubious origin sharing those details.
According to one story from a 2009 blogpost, “Bottoms Up” was commissioned by “a wealthy Denver-area oilman.” He wanted Grigware to create an alluring painting of a Cody woman who was allegedly his mistress.
Cody historian Bob Richard could verify some of that information, while acknowledging there’s more fiction than fact in most accounts.
“Several stories about that painting abound,” he said.
One thing he could confirm was that the model for “Bottoms Up” was, indeed, a Cody woman.
Dorothy “Dot” Morris managed the Lazy Bar H Ranch, now the Bill Cody Ranch, between Cody and Yellowstone National Park with her husband, Leonard.
“She was very beautiful and partied a lot with Leonard and other Cody families,” Richard said. “When Leonard took guests to fish for mackinaw, Dot was always there.”
Richard said Morris probably connected with Grigware through the Frontier School of Western Art, a short-lived complex of log cabin studios that drew Grigware and other artists to Cody between 1936 and 1941.
Technically, there’s only one cowgirl in “Bottoms Up.” All four women were modeled by Morris, posed and painted by Grigware four different times.
The final painting is of four cowgirls on a wooden fence, fully clothed in Western attire except for their bare derrieres.
The cowgirls are basking in the warm sun with the familiar silhouette of Heart Mountain in the distance.
The original painting had a pine pole frame made by another legendary Cody artist, Thomas Molesworth. It was delivered to its patron, who hung it in his home in Denver.
“I think the painting was done in the mid-1940s, after the end of the war,” Richard said. “But, to the best of my knowledge, I don’t think Dot was anyone’s mistress.”
Bottoms Back
“Bottoms Up” was eventually acquired by Quintin Blair, a renowned Cody businessman who brought the painting back to where it was created.
Blair served with the U.S. Navy in the Pacific Theatre of World War II, so it’s possible some of the battles Blair fought were painted by Grigware.
Blair went on to own several drug stores in Cody, managed the Pahaska Tepee Resort and Buffalo Bill Village, and established Quin Blair Enterprises, now Blair Hotels, which built the Holiday Inns in Cody, Laramie, and Riverton.
Blair was also a patron of the arts. There was no better example of that than his family home.
The Quintin Blair House, Wyoming’s only building by Frank Lloyd Wright, was built for the Blair family.
Before his death in 2013, Blair was the only living person to have continuously resided in a home designed and built by the famous architect.
Blair was also friends with Grigware and the Denver patron who commissioned “Bottoms Up.” When the patron died, his wife sold the painting to Blair.
According to legend, Blair acquired the painting for $1, with some caveats. The patron's wife wanted the painting publicly displayed in Cody as a slight to “the model,” meaning Morris.
In that story, Morris and her husband moved to San Diego, California, in the 1960s, out of embarrassment that Morris’s bare bottom had returned to Cody.
Richard has a much simpler explanation for the move.
“Dot and Leonard moved away for no other reason than Leonard retired and sold the ranch,” he said.
Fact And Fiction
Since the history of “Bottoms Up” is so intertwined with the Blair family, it's the best source of factual information on the painting.
Ted Blair is the CEO of Blair Hotels and Quintin Blair’s son. Like Richard, he’s amazed by the number of stories circulating around “Bottoms Up.”
“Most of what people have heard about it is made-up,” he told Cowboy State Daily. “The number of rumors, stories, and lies about that painting is unbelievable.”
Blair confirmed the core history. “Bottoms Up” was painted by Grigware in the 1940s, with Morris modeling, for a Denver patron whose wife hated it.
“It hung behind red velvet curtains in the bar of their home,” he said. “When he'd have friends over, he'd open the curtains up. When there was nobody there, the curtains were closed, because his wife hated the painting.”
Quintin Blair bought the painting from the man’s widow, but there were no caveats with the purchase.
“Thomas Molesworth's son called my father and said, ‘Remember that nude of Grigware’s? It's for sale.’ My father got a hold of it, and that's how it ended up in Cody again,” he said.
Blair confirmed that his father didn’t acquire and display the painting out of obligation or spite.
“He knew Grigware, he knew the painting, and thought it was fun,” he said.
Hanging Out
When Blair opened Cody’s Holiday Inn in 1972, “Bottoms Up” was prominently placed in the hotel’s bar, the Daisy Bell Saloon.
It would later be known as the Bottoms Up Lounge, where the painting was the centerpiece for decades.
Thousands of people dropped by to appreciate the painting, for various reasons. Even Holiday Inn capitalized on it.
“They were selling posters of it at one point,” Richard said.
The painting made its way onto T-shirts, coffee mugs, postcards, and posters, eagerly acquired by fans of Grigware’s unique piece.
Frost was one of many Cody residents who regularly saw “Bottoms Up” when it hung in the Bottoms Up Lounge. He likened it to the famous pinup girls painted by Alberto Vargas.
“It was very Vargasesque,” he said.
It’s a notable departure in Grigware’s extensive body of work. According to a blog post about the history of “Bottoms Up” from August 2009, Grigware accepted the commission as his one and only “tasteful nude.”
“It’s the only nude he ever did, as far as I’m aware,” Blair said.
However, tasteful or not, “Bottoms Up” was eventually deemed too distasteful for the public.
Too Much On Display
When Cody’s Holiday Inn completed its most recent renovation, “Bottoms Up” was gone.
“It was in the lounge until a couple of years ago,” Frost said. “I don't know why they took it down. Maybe the Blairs decided that it was no longer relevant, maybe somebody complained about it.”
Richard thought the unique painting was removed at the request of Holiday Inn. Most chain-branded hotels have specific guidelines regarding what artwork can be displayed.
Quintin Blair was, allegedly, granted a dispensation to display “Bottoms Up” because of its provenance and association with Grigware.
“I think their management decided it was unacceptable, so it was taken down,” he said.
Ted Blair was happy to set the record straight. The painting was taken down because it would have been too visible.
“When we turned the lounge into an open area of the dining room, children would have been able to see it,” he said. “That’s when and why we pulled it down. That’s the decision I made.”
Heirloom Or Museum Piece?
As for its current whereabouts, Ted Blair confirmed that “Bottoms Up” still exists.
“I have it where nobody will know where it's at,” he said. “There’s a lot more to it than people realize."
Blair also has photos of Morris, who seemed to be even more free-spirited than her painted bottom in quadruplicate would suggest.
“There was a photography club in Cody that did nude photos of women (around that time), so I have photos, including nude photos, of the lady,” he said.
Many people, then and now, would say such a unique painting should be in a museum, such as the Whitney Western Art Museum at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West.
While he admittedly hadn’t considered the option, Blair doesn’t think “Bottoms Up” would have a home among the Whitneys’ collection.
“I don't see any nudes or Grigwares in there,” he said.
Art Actualized?
Many of Grigware’s murals and other paintings can be seen in buildings, chapels, and museum collections today. Several, but not all, of his Cody murals are intact.
“Bottoms Up” has largely disappeared from public discussion. Even if its story contains more fact than fiction, the quirky painting is a notable work by one of the great American masters.
There’s one other story that abounds around the story of “Bottoms Up.” Morris was the only cowgirl depicted in the painting, but several people claim they’ve seen a mark-for-mark photograph recreating the painting with four bare-bottomed cowgirls.
“I saw a photographic rendition of that picture once, and I'm not sure who did it,” Frost said. “We certainly do not have that picture in the museum’s collection.”
Someone who called themself “Tippy” claimed to be one of those cowgirls. In an online post, she claimed the photo was taken by a Cody photographer in the summer of 1976.
“I had the privilege of working for Quin Blair as an entertainer at the famous Chuckwagon and Sarsaparilla Saloon,” she wrote. “After a great performance one night … the female members of the group made arrangements with an Old West photographer to oblige them out in the pasture (and) leaned over the fence overlooking the cowherd to take their picture in a remake of the original oil painting.”
Tippy said the women “mustered up the courage to slap that leather over their bare bottoms” with the assistance of several cocktails.
“They were shot at sunrise with a belly full of Tequila sunrises,” she wrote.
Bottoms up, if you will.
Could this be a factual or fictional account? It seems the only consistent thing in the history of “Bottoms Up” is the way mystery and fantasy have become part of its legacy.
The reality of “Bottoms Up” is a “tasteful nude” painting from the 1940s by a renowned American artist best known for his murals in church chapels.
It’s become hard to see, but even harder to forget for those who encountered it.
That's what happens when a realism artist doesn't leave enough to the imagination. It as intriguing in 2026 as it was in 1946.
“It’s a fun painting,” Blair said.
Andrew Rossi can be reached at arossi@cowboystatedaily.com.
