Amy Vach

Catalog Number: 2017.002.01

While snow can sometimes be an annoyance, it’s also hard to complain about the fairyland scenery a new snowfall can create.

Raymond Bice captured this beautiful local scene in a painting that he gifted to one of his friends, Florence Young.

This watercolor, which measures 6.75 inches-by-4.75 inches, features a green home with a red barn surrounded by trees covered with a blanket of snow. In the bottom right corner, the painting is signed: Ray Bice 1988.

Raymond Bice was born in La Crosse in 1896. Throughout his 98 years as a resident of La Crosse County, Ray Bice wore many hats. In addition to being an artist, he was a World War I veteran, state legislator, builder and businessman, civic leader, writer and an occasional magician.

Bice witnessed nearly a century of history. During his life, he heard President William Howard Taft’s speech at the dedication of the YMCA in La Crosse in 1909 and saw the first airplane land in La Crosse in 1911.

As a state legislator, in the 1940s, Bice proposed a Wisconsin speed limit for rural roads. Before 1949, there were speed limits in towns and cities, but not on country roads. The law stated that people were not permitted to drive “carelessly and heedlessly” on highways.

Later in his life, he began writing articles about local history for the La Crosse Tribune and authored two books about his reminiscences: “A Century to Remember” and “Years to Remember.”

Bice began painting in 1938, but he didn’t seriously begin making artwork until the late 1960s. He painted scenes for his Christmas cards, and other artwork became gifts like this one that he gave to his friend Florence Young, now in the collection of the La Crosse County Historical Society.

This article was originally published in the La Crosse Tribune on December 6, 2019.

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