By the time Frank W. Benson was fifty, he was internationally famous and his career was secure. The painter who won every award the art world had to offer, whom journalists dubbed “America’s most medalled artist,” was in great demand as a portraitist. His sparkling, sun-drenched paintings of his children at their summer home on Maine’s North …
It was my pleasure to speak to the Duxbury Art Association about Frank W. Benson’s deep roots in the area’s art community. Here’s an article from the Duxbury Clipper.
To celebrate the 100th birthday of the Duxbury Art Association, I will be speaking Wednesday July 26 at 7:30 the Ellison Center for the Arts in Duxbury, Massachusetts. The discussion will cover the first and second exhibitions of the DAA, of which Frank W. Benson was a founder. On July 27th at 4p.m. I’ll …
It is March. From the window above my desk, I can see geese heading north making a graceful “V” against the pale spring sky. Some ducks have stopped to rest at the lake on the bottom of the hill. The patterns these migrating wildfowl make as they wing their way to their summer homes remind …
When Frank W. Benson returned from two years of study at the Academie Julian in Paris he hung out his shingle and began painting portraits as quickly as he could. He’d just become engaged to a childhood friend, Ellen Peirson, and needed to prove to her widowed mother that he could support a wife and family. …
Historic Benson Painting Fails to Find a Buyer at Auction Read More »
For years, the readers of Country Living have adored Faith Andrews Bedford’s evocative stories, featured in her beloved bi-monthly column, “Kids in the Country.” This enchanting collection invites everyone to join Bedford as she movingly recaptures the modest triumphs of children, the importance of family traditions, and the simple pleasures of country life. In “Sister …
This book focuses on Frank W. Benson’s life and work in Maine, where he spent summers on North Haven Island, at Wooster Farm. It was there that he painted almost all of his brilliant, light-filled Impressionist paintings, launched his prolific etching career, and began his highly successful watercolor period, many of which are illustrated. Also …
Mrs. Andrews Bedford has drawn on a rich store of family memories, diaries, letters and archives to create an intimate biography of the artist. Her research both here and abroad have created an authoritative portrait of the artist and his personal and professional milieu. This rare material allows intriguing insights into the development of a …
In mid-life, after an extremely successful career as a portraitist and painter of plein air canvases, Frank W. Benson returned to the wildfowl and sporting subjects that were his lifelong passion. Over the next forty years, in etching, lithography, watercolor, and oil and wash, he portrayed birds beloved since childhood and scenes of his hunting …
In the corner of my daughter’s room is a little four-poster bed. On it lies my favorite doll, which I saved for my children to play with. She’s covered with a tiny pink coverlet edged in hand-tied fringe. The coverlet was my first sewing project, made when I was nine. The pleasure of creating lovely …