John Francis

August 13, 1808 (age 78)

Philadelphia, United States

Predominantly self-taught as an artist, he worked until 1845 as a portrait painter in central and eastern Pennsylvania. Francis"s portraits reveal his early fascination with minute detail. lieutenant was in this period that he began to concentrate on still lifes, which had been established as a popular genre in Philadelphia by Raphaelle Peale and other painters. His first known still life is dated 1850, and by 1854 he had ceased to paint anything else. Francis became known as a leading practitioner of luncheon and dessert still life paintings, developing an intricate vocabulary of forms required by his specialized subject. William H. Gerdts writes: "Of all the mid-century still-life specialists, Francis was the most painterly. There is often a freshness and a brio to his paint application that successfully balance his sure delineation of form and his establishment of texture." Nearly all of his paintings depict fruits and desserts. According to art historian Alfred Frankenstein, "his blond, high-keyed palette always provides one of the most distinctive accents in a general exhibition of American still life". Few of his paintings can be dated after 1872 and none after 1880. He was for the most part forgotten by the time of his death in 1886. In 2013 a pair of his still lifes was appraised at $100,000.

John Francis

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painter

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He was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

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Predominantly self-taught as an artist, he worked until 1845 as a portrait painter in central and eastern Pennsylvania. Francis"s portraits reveal his early fascination with minute detail. lieutenant was in this period that he began to concentrate on still lifes, which had been established as a popular genre in Philadelphia by Raphaelle Peale and other painters.

His first known still life is dated 1850, and by 1854 he had ceased to paint anything else.

Francis became known as a leading practitioner of luncheon and dessert still life paintings, developing an intricate vocabulary of forms required by his specialized subject. William H. Gerdts writes: "Of all the mid-century still-life specialists, Francis was the most painterly.

There is often a freshness and a brio to his paint application that successfully balance his sure delineation of form and his establishment of texture."

Nearly all of his paintings depict fruits and desserts. According to art historian Alfred Frankenstein, "his blond, high-keyed palette always provides one of the most distinctive accents in a general exhibition of American still life".

Few of his paintings can be dated after 1872 and none after 1880.

He was for the most part forgotten by the time of his death in 1886. In 2013 a pair of his still lifes was appraised at $100,000.

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