Background
Frederick Stuart Church, the son of Thomas B. and Mary Elizabeth (Stuart) Church, was born at Grand Rapids, Michigan, United States.
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Frederick Stuart Church
Edit ProfileEducation
As a young boy Frederick was taught to draw by a local painter and engraver named Hartung, a native of Holland. Later he enrolled at the National Academy of Design, where he studied drawing and painting with Walter Shirlaw and L. M. Wilmarth.
Career
Church was sent at thirteen years to Chicago to enter the employ of the American Express Company. While in the office his clever caricatures made him known as “the art chap. ” At seventeen he enlisted as a private in Company A, Chicago Light Artillery, and saw honorable service in the Civil War, including participation in Sherman’s march to the sea.
About 1870s Church began to show pictures at the National Academy of Design and to make illustrations for Harper’s Weekly and other publications. For three years he was employed by the Elgin Watch Company as commercial illustrator. He began at this time to make studies of animals which, as he generally endowed them with human and humorous attributes, proved popular and salable. He took an active part in 1875 in the formation of the Art Students’ League of New York, called by his friend and associate William St. John Harper “the most democratic and American of art academies. ”
Though resident at New York during most of his professional life he retained characteristics of the Middle West. Notably American in aspirations and reactions, he was an old man when he first visited Europe, and he created a mild newspaper sensation on his return by announcing that European art could teach Americans little or nothing. But while he painted pictures in which subject seemed to be of primary consideration, he was a thoroughly artistic technician whose work was remarkable for its refined tonality, broad handling, and truth of tone relations.
He is represented in the National Gallery, Washington; in the Metropolitan Museum, New York; in the City Art Museum, St. Louis; and in other public and private collections.
Achievements
Membership
Church belonged simultaneously to the Society of American Artists and to the National Academy and he helped to effect the union of these societies. He was active in the American Water Color Society and the New York Etching Club, and he served as a trustee of the Harper Fund to help young students through the art schools. He was a member of the Lotus Club and of the Architectural League of New York, and for several years was chairman of the art committee of the Union League Club.
Personality
Quotes from others about the person
“Himself one of the most unconventional and least academic of draftsmen, he has always maintained the importance of thorough academic training. ” - William St. John Harper
