American, 1874 - 1939
Frederick Frieseke's father, an Owosso brick manufactory owner, moved his family to Florida in about 1881 after the death of his wife. In the fall of 1893 Frieseke entered the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he studied with Frederick Warren Freer and John Vanderpoel for three years. He spent the following year studying at the Art Students League in New York and then went to Paris. There he enrolled at the Académie Julian under Jean-Joseph Benjamin-Constant and Jean-Paul Laurens while also working with James Abbott McNeill Whistler at the Académie Carmen.
From 1898 until about 1907, Frieseke enjoyed the financial assistance of Rodman Wanamaker, president of the American Art Association of Paris. Wanamaker also commissioned him to produce a large mural decoration for his New York store as well as decorations for the breakfast room in his home that, when installed in 1904, brought Frieseke his first favorable public attention. Murals executed for the Shelbourne Hotel in Atlantic City, New Jersey, installed in 1906, added to his fame.
Beginning in 1900, the year he first exhibited in a Paris Salon, Frieseke summered in Giverny. In 1906 he acquired the house next door to Claude Monet's that had formerly belonged to Theodore Robinson; he retained it until 1919. During his years in Giverny, he attained the heights of international fame and admiration for his consummately Impressionist canvases. Despite his proximity to Monet, it was with Auguste Renoir that his work had the greatest affinity. Frieske's favored subjects were ladies in varying states of dress seen in their boudoirs, women standing amid lush flower gardens, and, especially, the play of outdoor light on the nude female form.
In 1904 he won a silver medal at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in Saint Louis and a gold medal at the Munich Exhibition. That same year, the Musée Luxembourg purchased one of his paintings. He received the William A. Clark Prize in the 1908 biennial at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Seventeen of his paintings were shown in the Venice Biennale of 1909, and again a work was purchased by the local museum for its permanent collection.
Frieseke's first major American exhibition was presented by the Macbeth Galleries in New York in 1912. He won the Temple Gold Medal in the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts annual exhibition of 1913. In 1915 he attained his highest honor, the grand prize at San Francisco's Panama-Pacific International Exposition.
William Macbeth remained his dealer and close associate throughout his life. Sales were ample and prestigious: a work was even acquired by the modern art gallery in Odessa, Russia. However, Frieseke's emphasis on languorous nudes, heedlessly sunning themselves, led American patrons to be less enthusiastic about his work than those in Europe.
Frieseke was made a Chevalier of the French Legion of Honor in 1920. That year he purchased a summer home at Mesnil-sur-Blangy in Normandy, giving up his association with Giverny. Although he continued exhibiting widely-including regular participation in Academy annual exhibitions-receiving admiring reviews and garnering significant awards, his popularity and patronage gradually diminished. Although he did not change his essentially Impressionist manner of painting or his favored subject matter, his palette darkened somewhat. As the years passed, these factors combined to put his art increasingly out of touch with contemporary trends and tastes.
From 1898 until about 1907, Frieseke enjoyed the financial assistance of Rodman Wanamaker, president of the American Art Association of Paris. Wanamaker also commissioned him to produce a large mural decoration for his New York store as well as decorations for the breakfast room in his home that, when installed in 1904, brought Frieseke his first favorable public attention. Murals executed for the Shelbourne Hotel in Atlantic City, New Jersey, installed in 1906, added to his fame.
Beginning in 1900, the year he first exhibited in a Paris Salon, Frieseke summered in Giverny. In 1906 he acquired the house next door to Claude Monet's that had formerly belonged to Theodore Robinson; he retained it until 1919. During his years in Giverny, he attained the heights of international fame and admiration for his consummately Impressionist canvases. Despite his proximity to Monet, it was with Auguste Renoir that his work had the greatest affinity. Frieske's favored subjects were ladies in varying states of dress seen in their boudoirs, women standing amid lush flower gardens, and, especially, the play of outdoor light on the nude female form.
In 1904 he won a silver medal at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in Saint Louis and a gold medal at the Munich Exhibition. That same year, the Musée Luxembourg purchased one of his paintings. He received the William A. Clark Prize in the 1908 biennial at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Seventeen of his paintings were shown in the Venice Biennale of 1909, and again a work was purchased by the local museum for its permanent collection.
Frieseke's first major American exhibition was presented by the Macbeth Galleries in New York in 1912. He won the Temple Gold Medal in the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts annual exhibition of 1913. In 1915 he attained his highest honor, the grand prize at San Francisco's Panama-Pacific International Exposition.
William Macbeth remained his dealer and close associate throughout his life. Sales were ample and prestigious: a work was even acquired by the modern art gallery in Odessa, Russia. However, Frieseke's emphasis on languorous nudes, heedlessly sunning themselves, led American patrons to be less enthusiastic about his work than those in Europe.
Frieseke was made a Chevalier of the French Legion of Honor in 1920. That year he purchased a summer home at Mesnil-sur-Blangy in Normandy, giving up his association with Giverny. Although he continued exhibiting widely-including regular participation in Academy annual exhibitions-receiving admiring reviews and garnering significant awards, his popularity and patronage gradually diminished. Although he did not change his essentially Impressionist manner of painting or his favored subject matter, his palette darkened somewhat. As the years passed, these factors combined to put his art increasingly out of touch with contemporary trends and tastes.
