Frank Weston Benson

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Frank Weston Benson, frequently referred to as Frank W. Benson, (March 24, 1862 – November 15, 1951) was an American artist from Salem, Massachusetts known for his Realistic portraits, American Impressionist paintings, watercolors and etchings.

He began his career painting portraits of distinguished families and murals for the Library of Congress.

Some of his best known paintings (Eleanor, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Summer, Rhode Island School of Design Museum) depict his daughters outdoors at Benson's summer home, Wooster Farm, on the island of North Haven, Maine.

He also produced numerous oil, wash and watercolor paintings and etchings of wildfowl and landscapes. In 1880, Benson began to study at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston under both Otto Grundmann and Frederic Crowninshield.

In 1883 he travelled to Paris to study at the Académie Julian.

He enjoyed a distinguished career as an instructor and department head at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

He was a founding member of the Ten American Painters, American Academy of Arts and Letters and The Guild of Boston Artists.

Early years

Frank Weston Benson was born to George Wiggin Benson, a successful cotton broker, and Elisabeth Poole,: 13  from families who founded Salem, Massachusetts. Benson obtained his appreciation of the sea from his grandfather, Captain Samuel Benson. When he was 12, he was given a sailboat: 13  in which he explored the waterways and marshes and raced against his brother, John Prentiss Benson. To encourage educational activity, Benson's parents gave their children a weekly allowance to foster independent study and hobbies, such as Salem's Hamilton Hall dance classes, Lyceum lectures or equipment for photography. The brothers kept active by participating in sports, as well as fishing and hunting.: 16–17

Benson's father gave him a shotgun and taught him how to hunt shore birds along the North Shore and wildfowl in the local fields and marshes.: 13  He spent nearly all of his weekends hunting or fishing in the fields, marshes and streams.: 16–17  To his good friend Dan Henderson, he wrote of their childhood adventures:

His brother, John Prentiss Benson, was an architect and painter in his own right. Both sons may have been influenced by their mother, Elisabeth Poole Benson, who Frank once remarked, had "a little room" on the top floor of their house where she would go to paint and "forget about the rest of the world".

An avid birdwatcher and wildfowl hunter, Benson wanted to be an ornithological illustrator.: 8  At the age of 16, he painted Rail, one of his first oil paintings, after a hunting trip.: 8  He began his studies at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston in 1880,: 263  and there befriended Joseph Lindon Smith,: 20  Robert Reid and Edmund Charles Tarbell. Capitalizing on what he learned, Benson held drawing classes in Salem and painted landscapes during the summer of 1882. : 263

On Benson's 21st birthday his parents gave him a gift of $2,000 to study in Europe. He traveled to Paris and studied at the Académie Julien from 1883 to 1884 with Edmund Tarbell and Joseph Lindon Smith; Joseph Lindon Smith and Benson shared an apartment.: 263  At the Academy, Benson studied under Jules-Joseph Lefebvre, William Turner Dannat, and Gustave Boulanger. Gustave Boulanger, one of Benson's teachers at Académie Julien, said to him: "Young man, your career is in your hands... you will do very well." After his study at Académie Julien, Benson traveled to England's Royal Academy to see his painting "After the Storm" on exhibit. He also spent time in Italy, Belgium, Germany, and Brittany.

Wildlife

Before Benson began his Impressionist paintings of his family, he made many seascape and landscape paintings. He used several mediums or techniques to capture his love of wildlife, including wash, watercolor, oil, lithography and etching. Regarding his artistic mastery, Peabody Essex Museum curator Dean Lahikainen commented: "Benson was a unique artist, in that he had mastered so many different mediums and subjects. And from his early works right until the very end, light is what he was interested in."

Reminiscent of Benson's original goal as an artist to become an ornithological illustrator,: 8  birds were the subjects of most of his washes, etchings, and watercolors.

Wash paintings

Etching

Watercolors

Oil paintings

Benson was elected in 1919 as the first president of the Essex County Ornithological Society.: 264

At the request of fellow artist and conservationist Jay Norwood "Ding" Darling, Benson designed the second Federal Duck Stamp in 1935.: 235

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