Frank Rehn evinced little interest in art until age 18, when his father bought him painting supplies as a diversion during a period of convalescence from illness. Rehn soon enrolled at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, studying under Christian Schussele. For a number of years, he resided in Philadelphia, executing portraits, genre scenes, still lifes, and landscapes. Criticism from a colleague, Russell Smith, supposedly convinced Rehn to abandon his variable interests and concentrate on one subject, the marines and New England coast scenes on which his later reputation are based. He married Margaret Selby in 1881, and soon after, they moved to New York to seek a wider market. An auction sale of his work was conducted in 1892; by 1896, he was successful enough to begin building a summer home at Magnolia, MA. Election to the Society of American Artists came in 1903, four years after he became an NAD Associate. He continued to exhibit in Academy Annuals until his death.
