The Dean: Frank Nelson Wilcox, A Retrospective

The Dean FRANK NELSON WILCOX (1887 - 1964)

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The Dean FRANK NELSON WILCOX (1887 - 1964) WOLFS Gallery, Cleveland, Ohio September 19, 2019 - November 30, 2019

With an Introduction by Henry Adams

13010 LARCHMERE BLVD CLEVELAND, OH 44120 (216) 721 6945 INFO@WOLFSGALLERY.COM WWW.WOLFSGALLERY.COM

Contents Introduction

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Ch. 1 - The Cleveland School of Art

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Ch. 2 - Brecksville, Cleveland, and Around Ohio

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Ch. 3 - American Scene

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Ch. 4 - France/Europe

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Ch. 5 - The North Eastern Coast

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Ch. 6 - Ohio Indian Trails, The Ohio Canals & Weather Wisdom

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Ch. 7 - Travels West

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Ch. 8 - Little-Bigs

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Ch. 9 - Prints

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Chronology

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Exhibitions

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Foreword “The ‘Dean of Cleveland Painters.’ Wilcox stood and still stands in the forefront of the city’s extremely important contributory talents.”

-Helen Cullinan, Cleveland Plain Dealer, July 25, 1976

Fortunately, these works were discovered while working with the Wilcox estate and the grandson of the artist. He provided us with uninhibited access to dusty boxes and cupboards filled with paintings and ephemera, until now, unseen for decades. The deep cobalt and shimmering emeralds Wilcox used in this group of seascapes and landscapes remain as vibrant as the day they were painted. In addition, the estate has shared a cache of dramatic early oils and stunning watercolors executed throughout Europe and North America.

As a Cleveland native, a major subject to which Wilcox consistently returns is Brecksville, where he spent much of his childhood and a good deal of his adult life visiting his family’s farms. One of Wilcox’s paternal ancestors, Josiah Wilcox, a veteran of the Revolutionary War, was the first of his name to settle in Brecksville in 1816. Brecksville is not simply a place Wilcox visited and painted, but it recalls a deep-rooted ancestral history for the artist.

A century later WOLFS is proud to present “The Dean”, an exhibition of over 200 works by the prolific Cleveland School master Frank Nelson Wilcox (1887 - 1964).

Known as “the Dean of Cleveland Painters,” Wilcox was a graduate of the Cleveland School of Art in 1910 and began his legendary teaching career at the Institute in 1913. As a student of Henry Keller, and a teacher to Charles Burchfield, Clarence Carter, Carl Gaertner, and Paul Travis, among others, Wilcox grew to become one of the foremost leaders in the development of the Cleveland School.

With this exhibition we embrace the whole of Wilcox’s oeuvre. By dividing the catalog into sections representing important periods in Wilcox’s development, one begins to see and understand the entire scope of this remarkable artist’s life. This exhibition includes the debut of his masterful modern watercolors from the 1920’s and 1930’s.

Ever the scholar, Wilcox was also a New York Times bestselling author. Throughout the catalog, excerpts from Wilcox’s autobiography and his manuscript, Out in Brecksville, help to illuminate different artistic periods and places, bringing his paintings to life. The fortuitous existence of these important texts by Wilcox provided a valuable opportunity for Wilcox to speak to his own works, nearly a century later. Through his writing, we are able to grasp his memories, thoughts, and artistic insights. For instance, he details great satisfaction with his methods in watercolor, describing how he was painting, “light, weather and the sense of space…seen through the lightness and airiness of the watercolor technique.”

Considering WOLFS’ close connection with the “Cleveland School” and having held the exhibition, “Cleveland: A Cultural Center,” last summer, it is gratifying to fully focus on just one of the Cleveland School’s most important figures. The diversity, condition, and overall quality of this artist’s estate is excellent. With Wilcox’s 44 year tenure at the Cleveland School, he did not need to sell his works.

Thankfully, Wilcox’s collection, tucked away in basement cupboards and boxes, passing from his daughter to his grandson, remains filled with a trove of spectacular unseen watercolors, oils and prints.

Michael Wolf

Introduction FRANK NELSON WILCOX: DEAN OF CLEVELAND SCHOOL PAINTERS

This exhibition of watercolors by Frank Nelson Wilcox (1887-1964) provides an opportunity to view fresh, perfectly preserved examples of an array of remarkable work by one of the most highly regarded watercolorists of his generation. A notable feature of the Cleveland School is the excellence of work produced in watercolor, by figures such as Charles Burchfield, William Sommer, Henry Keller, Paul Travis, Viktor Schreckengost and others. Frank Wilcox, who like Burchfield was a protégé of the charismatic teacher Henry Keller, fits into this pattern. While he produced some excellent specimens in oil, watercolor dominates his oeuvre.

In his lifetime, Wilcox was celebrated not only for the excellence of his work, which often won national prizes, but for the speed and easy confidence with which he could produce a watercolor on the spot. He always used simple tools—just three paint brushes, and a chair for an easel, with the watercolor block propped up at a slight angle.

Perhaps what’s most remarkable about Wilcox’s work was his grasp of weather and atmosphere in the composition as a whole. His paintings never look as though they were pieced together inch-by-inch but grasp the scene as a totality, with all its complex variations of color and light. As he once wrote of the watercolor medium:

“Many instructive books on watercolor have specific rules for painting objects and effects. The chief difficulty in following these is that they seldom allow for varying distance and are planned as if for stilllife painting. Owing to all its qualities, the medium requires actually more free exercise than others to acquaint the worker with all its possibilities.” ​ ilcox was born and grew up in Cleveland, but his family W also owned a farm in Brecksville, where he experienced simple rural life of the sort that later became the subject of many of his watercolors. He came of age in a period when magazines and newspapers were expanding rapidly, and journalism and illustration were quickly developing into remunerative fields. His father, who was a prominent lawyer, also wrote poetry and had many friends who were writers or illustrators for the Cleveland newspapers. As a consequence, he strongly encouraged his son’s artistic interests. After graduating from Central High School, where he illustrated the High School Yearbook, Wilcox went on to the Cleveland School of Art, where studied from 1906 to 1910, chiefly with Frederick Gottwald and Henry Keller. Some of his student work is included in this

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exhibition, including a striking watercolor of the gaunt model Antonio Corsi, who also posed in this period for the famous portraitist John Singer Sargent. ​ ilcox went on to spend the better part of two years in W Paris, where, untypically for a young artist, he did not enroll in regular classes or a school, but worked on his own. However, he would sometimes drop by Colarossi’s in the evening to sketch the model or the other students at their easels. A diligent worker, he made sketches and watercolors every day, producing well over one hundred in the course of his stay. As a group these works provide an amazing record of the life of Paris and its environs in the final years of La Belle Époque, when Paris was the world’s unquestioned artistic center: barges on the Seine; figures strolling in the parks and on the streets; the laundries and mattress stuffers along the Seine; the flower sellers; the horses and carts which hauled dirt, and trash, and cargo for the river boats; the monumental vistas of the Invalides and Notre Dame.

Part of the discipline of Wilcox’s approach is that he did not fuss or belabor what he did, but worked directly and relatively quickly. His pencil under-drawing in these watercolors is wonderfully accurate without ever becoming stiff; his application of watercolor delicate and suggestive. On his return, to his chagrin and surprise, his old teacher Henry Keller, who had become an advocate of new theories of brilliant, Post-Impressionist color, was severely critical of what he had done, viewing it as oldfashioned. But when Wilcox staged an exhibition of the works at the Taylor Galleries they sold well and were praised in the newspapers. It seems to have been largely on the basis of this success that he was hired as an instructor at the Cleveland School of Art, where he would remain as a teacher for an unbroken stint of 44 years.

By all accounts, Wilcox was an extraordinary teacher. Over the course of his career he taught design, figure drawing, anatomy, illustration, and landscape, as well as etching, lithography, and other techniques of printmaking. Each subject he taught he studied intensively, often devoting his summers to self-instruction, and developing a range of arcane knowledge about such subjects as weather, archaeology, botany, zoology, and kindred subjects. His notion was that to make a good painting, you needed a scientist’s grasp of what you were looking at. To get a better grasp of anatomy he constructed a jointed manikin with rubber bands to play the role of muscles; to

teach landscape composition, he developed a diorama in a box with peep-holes, with dials to move objects around and to control the lighting. He developed highly creative classroom exercises, such as frying eggs to get students to closely observe the freshness of the eggs and the effect of different degrees of heat; or sending students downtown to study a store window and then return to the school and draw it from memory. Despite his erudition, however, Wilcox’s work was never finicky.

He drew and painted with bold slashing strokes.

The politics of the Cleveland School of Art in this period revolved around the rivalry between Frederic Gottwald, in the conservative camp, and Henry Keller in the modern one. Gottwald dominated the painting department, whereas Keller, who had worked for several years designing posters in the commercial world, was brought in to teach industrial design. A curious consequence of this split was that most of the students in the school who went on to produce art of national importance, such as Charles Burchfield and Viktor Schreckengost, majored in industrial design rather than painting. In addition, for the most part they learned to work in watercolor rather than oil, since watercolor was the favored medium for producing illustrations and poster designs. Burchfield, for example, produced only two or three oil paintings over the entire course of his career. Not surprisingly, watercolor became Wilcox’s chosen medium of expression.

Significantly also, in this period, following the lead set by figures like Winslow Homer and John Singer Sargent, watercolor was gaining stature in progressive circles as a major medium of expression. In the work of members of the Stieglitz group, such as John Marin, its unique freshness and spontaneity were viewed as qualities at the heart of American identity.

Shore of White Island, Maine c. 1923 pg. 108

“Washer Woman” Monhegan Island, Maine c. 1923 pg. 109

At the time he took up his teaching job, Wilcox married a fellow student, Florence Bard, but this did not interfere with his enormous appetite for work, including sessions at Henry Keller’s summer school in Berlin Heights, where he formed a warm relationship with Keller. As Wilcox later recalled:

“Our honeymoon was spent in a tent on a hill with a sweeping view which Keller had recommended.

We never knew just when he would appear on his bicycle to ask me to go etching but Florence had no objections with all the girls in the summer class to talk to… We cycled to every little lake port, forge and sawmill in the region and studied the eroded willow clad banks of the Huron. Once he even dragged me out from supper in the tent lest I miss what he called a ‘Jongkind sky’ and it became one of my best plates.”

The Paris watercolors set the stage for some of the most remarkable paintings of Wilcox’s career, a group of studies of the coast of Maine produced in a series of summer visits. This show includes some masterful examples, such as a view of the Shore of White Island in Maine, 1923, or a view of the surf on Monhegan, titled “Washer Woman”.

Keller’s criticism, while Wilcox surely resented it, clearly had an impact, and gives these works a modern feeling despite the academic accuracy of Wilcox’s drawing.

They exhibit fascinating mosaics of rich color patterns.

One of their hallmarks is the manner in which shadows are rendered with an indigo which is almost startling in its assertive resonance, in part because most of these works are remarkably unfaded, having been stored for years out of the sunlight. The dappled effect of some of these paintings, such as View Towards Christmas Cove, even brings to mind the work of contemporary Maine landscape painters, such as Neill Welliver.

View Towards Christmas Cove, Maine c. 1923 pg. 106

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In 1929 Wilcox’s friend, Alfred Mewitt, who had visited the Gaspé Peninsula, urged Wilcox to go there the next summer on a sketching trip, and Wilcox took him up on the suggestion. He returned for three more years, and the harsh, dramatic landscape, with its rocky headlands, inspired some of his best work, which is similar to his renderings of the Maine coast, but even more dramatic.

As he later recalled: “At that time, the region was practically unknown to tourists, and one felt the full spirit of its northern isolation, its wildness, and a quaintness of human existence so dominated by the force of the elements. There were wide horizons, portentous cloud and fogs, and the looming rocks and headlands. All these things fitted my color sense and watercolor technique.”

The landscape particularly lent itself to an effect of which Wilcox was a master: that of contrasting clean, crisp outlines with wet areas, where he let the wet pigment blur edges and run slightly down the sheet, to create the effect of mist or fog. For Wilcox was a master at creating a range of variations of a blurred edge with seemingly simple means. In an unpublished book on watercolor technique, for example, he noted:

“Assuming three conditions of paper—dry, damp, and wet—a single touch will develop as many qualities of edge as the pigment is thin, medium, or thick. Considering this, at least nine perceptible qualities may be created. Another distinct quality of touch is found in the ‘dry-brush’ effect created by briskly sweeping the paper when dry with a color also approaching dryness. This creates a crayonlike texture.”

Careful study of Wilcox’s watercolors will reveal all nine of the blurred edges described, as well as the dry-brush technique.

On his second trip to the region, Wilcox encountered the photographer Paul Strand and his wife, who admired the way Wilcox started his watercolors, which reminded them of Marin, but did not approve of applying greater finish. Wilcox later deprecated their “cultist point of view” and commented that their presence “spoiled the place for me to some degree.” Nonetheless, their comment points towards a sort of underlying modernism in Wilcox’s work, a directness and spontaneity which fills these works with life. After his return to Cleveland, Wilcox showed these works to William Milliken, the Director of the Cleveland Museum of Art, who was wildly enthusiastic, insisted on including them in The May Show, and acquired one for the museum.

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Sometimes Wilcox worked up to creating a major watercolor by making smaller studies, but significantly, he never lost a quality of freshness in the final statement.

Indeed, he commonly dispensed with underlying pencil drawing in the final piece, and worked directly with brush on paper.

Fortuitously, Cleveland provided a wonderfully supportive community for work in watercolor. Frederic Allen Whiting, the first director of the Cleveland Museum of Art, began his career as Director of the Society for Arts and Crafts in Boston, and was an ardent proponent of the Arts and Crafts movement, and of the importance of not only showing the work of dead artists, but of maintaining a vibrant living artistic culture which would bring art into daily life. On his initiative, in 1919, the Cleveland Museum of Art staged its first Annual Exposition of Cleveland Artists and Craftsmen, which soon became popularly known as The May Show, and was staged annually until 1958. It started to change format and be staged less regularly, finally coming to an official end in 1993. For much of its early history, it was curated by William Milliken, who came to the museum as Curator of Decorative Arts in 1919, became Curator of Painting in 1925, and served as director from 1930 to 1958.

The show was devoted entirely to local and regional artists, and offered about thirty prizes in different areas, including watercolor painting, which were bestowed by a jury of nationally distinguished artists who came to Cleveland to judge the work. The show quickly became the most popular exhibition each year at the museum, and greatly fostered patronage of work by local artists.

Wilcox became a regular prize winner in the watercolor category, and at the height of his career, also regularly contributed to national watercolor exhibitions in New York and Chicago.

This moment of artistic acclaim, however, did not last long. For some time Wilcox had been dismayed by the eccentricities of ultra-modern art. As the 1930s progressed, he became increasingly interested in looking backward into time, which was no doubt encouraged by the Regionalist movement of that decade, and encouraged realistic renderings of the American scene.

A major marker of this shift was Wilcox’s book on Ohio Indian Trails, which he illustrated with black-and-white ink drawings similar in effect to woodcuts, and became a best-seller. In it he traced the course of ancient trails, many of them converted into modern highways. He went on to spend years working on a similar book on Ohio canals, which was published only after his death.

Photograph of Wilcox painting, May 1958

What fascinated him was that these canals, which had once been on the forefront of transportation and new technology were now largely abandoned and overgrown.

As he commented, “These towpaths became as romantic to me as a dim Indian trail, for they recalled a way of life hectic in its own day, but far less so than this day of high-speed travel over roads which have obliterated the original levels, and span former river fords.”

Increasingly, Wilcox’s paintings became records of nostalgia, many of them images based on the scenes he had witnessed in rural Brecksville as a child, when the life and manners were still essentially those of the American frontier: scenes of ploughing, cutting hay, sawing wood, forging horseshoes, and beekeeping, as well as of relatives gathered in their best clothes for the annual family reunion. Many of these scenes, such as On the Back Porch, Brecksville, have some of the same sober honesty one finds in the contemporary work of American scene painters such as Clarence Carter and Grant Wood. During this period he fell out with William Milliken at the Cleveland Museum of Art, in part because he assumed the presidency of The Cleveland Society of Artists, a conservative group formed in opposition to Keller and modernist tendencies. While he continued to exhibit in The May Show, Wilcox’s last prize there was a “First in Watercolor” awarded in 1932.

He continued to travel, making painting excursions to North Carolina and the Deep South, and in the 1940s he made a number of excursions, producing paintings

of cowboys in the vast landscape that bring to mind scenes in a John Ford Western, and which show a truly remarkable ability to capture the weather effects— perhaps streaks of rain descending from distant clouds, or complex patterns of moving shadows and flickering light. Interestingly, Wilcox did not drive, but would sit in the front seat sketching while others drove for him.

One of the more curious artifacts of his career are long landscape scrolls, a bit like those of Chinese art, sometimes twenty feet long, which he would produce by sketching continuously during a long drive. In his final years, after his retirement, working entirely from imagination and memory, he produced a memorable series of “Little-Big Paintings”, several of which are in this exhibition, and record the scenes of rural life in Brecksville that he had witnessed when he was a child.

These were the subject of one of the final critical tributes he received in his lifetime, a glowing article by Norman Kent in American Artist, February 1963, just a year before his death, praising the way in which these works achieved a monumental effect within the space of a few square inches.

Amazingly well-organized, Wilcox kept comprehensive ledgers listing every painting he made, and in many instances providing a grade, if he thought it was an exceptional work. While his work sold well, his position as a teacher spared him from the need to sell everything he made. As a result, many of his best watercolors have remained in the family, where they were carefully stored, and not exposed to light. Today they are as luminous and fresh as the day they were made.

Henry Adams

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The Cleveland School of Art “All this first year at the school I had a feeling of guilt for enjoying it so much. It seemed that we did not work hard enough. Perhaps it was a puritan conscience due to my Yankee upbringing; and even the praise of my teachers did not do away with this.”

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1 Lady in Blue c. 1910 Watercolor on paper Signed verso 17 x 12 inches

“In water color there is a much greater latitude of effect possible than in many other processes.”

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One of the classes that Wilcox took at the Cleveland School of Art was in cast drawing taught

by F. C. Gottwald. He was required to faithfully render with consistent technique, the plaster casts of the most accomplished sculptures from history. Wilcox’s drawing of Michelangelo’s Dying Slave demonstrates his ability to meet the demands of such a strict course.

2 Study of Sculpture Michelangelo’s Dying Slave, c. 1906-10 Graphite on paper Signed lower right 24 x 14.5 inches

3 Drawing for the Spring Fantasy at the Cleveland School of Art c. 1907 Graphite on paper 15.75 x 10.5 inches 4 Angel with Violin inspired by Leonardo da Vinci c. 1906 Watercolor on paper 17 x 9.25 inches

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Drawn from another plaster cast at the Cleveland School of Art, The Wrestlers is a dynamic Roman marble sculpture after a lost Greek original of the third century BCE. It currently resides in the Uffizi collection in Florence, Italy. Later when Wilcox was a teacher, he recalled that there was a “destruction of casts at the School. All the lesser casts were used to ballast a new parking space... Thus, cast drawing was put to an end.”

5 Study of Sculpture - The Wrestlers c. 1906-10 Graphite on paper 18.5 x 24 inches WOLFS GALLERY |

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6 Reading c. 1908-10 Watercolor on paper 12 x 17.5 inches

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7 Nude in Darkness c. 1908 White conté crayon on black paper 20 x 11 inches

“Gottwald also conducted the same sketch class that was held on Wilson Avenue in which students took turns at posing in various costumes.This was good technical practice.”

8 Japanese Lantern c. 1910 Watercolor on paper 22 x 16 inches 31.5 x 25.5 inches, as framed

9 Self-Portrait in Colonial Costume c. 1908 Oil on board 21.75 x 17 inches

Photograph of Wilcox (far right) and Cleveland School of Art students dressed in colonial costume.

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Wilcox was also adept in capturing a person’s essence, as is seen in examples from his life drawing courses. One notable model was Antonio Corsi. An Italian-born artist’s model and silent-film actor, Corsi was a celebrity in the first part of the twentieth century, posing frequently for John Singer Sargent, Edward Burne-Jones, and Frederic Leighton. Wilcox easily captures Corsi’s celebrated “exotic” features and brooding expressions in both pencil and watercolor.

Wilcox stated “Corsi developed in the classes a record high for esprit-de-corps, which has never since then been duplicated.”

10 Drawing of Antonio Corsi 1908 Charcoal on paper Signed and dated lower right 17 x 11.25 inches

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11 Antonio Corsi as a Monk at his Desk c. 1908-10 Watercolor on paper 21 x 13.5 inches

“Gottwald gave me a good criticism on this and then took me outside very tactfully and told me he would kick me downstairs if I ever again brought watercolors in his classes.”

“In my own case my father dreamed up a cartoonist’s career for me although he wanted me to acquire a scientific education as a backlog. He sought out every opportunity to show off my ability to his friends and gave me confidence in my one gift standing in good stead after his early death… Thus an art career appeared to be the only course open to me at the age of seventeen, yet I had no real comprehension of its difficulties, purposes or meaning as a public service.”

12 Businessman Illustration c. 1908 Watercolor on paper 10.25 x 11 inches

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“It is not that the commercial attitude is wrong from any human standpoint, but that the more one paints, the less inclined he is to confuse styles and structural facts. I do not try, as some of my old teachers did, to preach against commercialism; but point out to my students the need to know the truth before trying to cope with the confusing problems of such composition.”

13 Teapot Still Life c. 1908-10 Watercolor on paper 11.75 x 15 inches

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14 Keller’s Watercolor Class 1908 Watercolor on paper 11 x 18 inches

“The outstanding experiences of the second year of art school, from my own point of view, were attending Keller’s watercolor class and studying design with Louis Rohrheimer.”

15 Potted Palm Tree c. 1908 Watercolor on paper 12.5 x 10 inches

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Upon Wilcox’s return from his first trip to Europe, he was offered a variety of professional opportunities, which were presented after the success of selling some of his works completed abroad. In 1913, only three years after his graduation, he began teaching at the

16 Cover Illustration for Collier’s The National Weekly c. 1910 Watercolor on paper 21.25 x 15.5 inches

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Cleveland School of Art. His remarkable tenure lasted 44 years, earning him the title, “The Dean of Cleveland School Painters.” He taught illustration, figure drawing, anatomy, and later, etching, lithography, and printmaking. Among many of his students to become wellknown artists were Charles Burchfield, Paul Travis, and Clarence Carter.

17 Eagle Point Hotel c. 1910 Watercolor on board Monogram lower right 26.25 x 17 inches

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Many of Wilcox’s classmates left after their second year at the Cleveland School of Art, believing they had gained enough skill to break in to the field of illustration. Most of them began attending the school with the intention of becoming illustrators or cartoonists. Though Wilcox’s father encouraged

18 The Water Jug c. 1908 Watercolor on paper 21.75 x 15 inches 17

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his artistic path in hopes of a lucrative cartoonist career, it does not seem that this was ever Wilcox’s goal. In fact, when his classmates left to pursue illustration, Wilcox considered their decision to be rash, for he was only beginning to pierce the skin of all artistic professional opportunities available.

19 Casual Man Illustration c. 1908-10 Watercolor on paper Initialed center right 24.5 x 19 inches

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Brecksville, Cleveland, and around Ohio “I felt more at home on Linwood Street or out on the farm where Mother was raised. The child does not analyze his feelings; he merely reacts and collects such things that remain as symbols of experience.”

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The Reunion, Brecksville, Ohio c. 1920 Oil on canvas 36 x 37 inches 41 x 42.5 inches, as framed Exhibited: 1927 May Show (1st Place), Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio.

Great Lakes Art Exhibition, 1939, Albright Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York; Memorial Art Gallery, Rochester, New York; Art Gallery of Toronto, Canada; Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio; Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio; Detroit Institute of Arts, Michigan; Milwaukee Art Institute, Wisconsin.

See pages 31-32

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20 Play Near the Stream, Berlin Heights, Ohio c. 1910 Watercolor and crayon on paper 18 x 24 inches

After Wilcox’s graduation from the Cleveland School of Art in 1910, he continued to study with Henry Keller in his summer watercolor class taught in Berlin Heights. Wilcox’s summer in Berlin Heights, carefully learning from his mentor, was an extension of his recently completed education. However, this time out of the changing city and in the rural countryside gave Wilcox more artistic perspective and was an “eye-opener to the substance of painting.”

21 Long Shadows in Berlin Heights, Ohio c. 1912 Oil on board 14.25 x 21 inches

Wilcox returned to Berlin Heights the summer after his first trip abroad to Europe. At this time, Keller urged Wilcox to “express himself Post-Impressionistically.” Though he resisted this feedback from his mentor, he found some value in the method, and began to change his perspective on color.

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22 Lowry’s Quarry, Berlin Heights, Ohio c. 1915 Watercolor on green paper mounted on board 22 x 14 inches

“But just as thrilling to young eyes was the approach from the state road, which afforded a sweeping view of the misty valley. Then flashed scattered roofs and bits of white road up on the hill beyond Chippewa Lake. The direct road, in particular, seemed to lie very steeply while we were traversing what we called the Devil’s Wash Bowl.” -Out in Brecksville

23 Bridge and Devils Wash Bowl, Brecksville, Ohio c. 1915 Watercolor on paper 10 x 13.25 inches

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24 Repairing the Net Reels at Huron, Ohio c. 1910 Watercolor on paper Signed lower right 15 x 11 inches

“We boys delighted in Keller’s boats, net reels and fish sheds at Huron and Vermillion, as well as the quarry smithies and sawmill in the village.”

25 Net Reels at Huron, Ohio c. 1910 Watercolor on paper Signed lower right 11 x 15 inches

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26 Clark’s Barn, Brecksville, Ohio c. 1910 Watercolor on paper 21 x 14.5 inches

“Every old farmhouse, wherever it may be, can tell of many a human incident transpiring within its walls, whether tragic, serio-comic, common place, orromantic in its essential character. These may arise from the failures of human nature to meet an issue philosophically or, in contrast, from those rare examples of unheralded courage and fortitude.” -Out in Brecksville

27 Path to Lake, Cleveland, Ohio c. 1910 Watercolor on paper 12 x 9 inches WOLFS GALLERY |

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28 Engineman at Quarry, Berlin Heights, Ohio c. 1910-16 Watercolor on paper 21 x 15 inches

“Studying at Berlin Heights was a revelation. The situation was unique in that the place could be reached by two interurban lines and was connected with Milan, Huron, Vermillion, Norwalk and Sandusky - all places affording opportunity for interesting sketching. The place itself was diversely rural, with two stone quarries; both of them topographically unusual. The students boarded in various farm houses, the most popular being Gertie Lowrie’s. This experience was only one of many to follow.”

29 Buggy in Shed, Berlin Heights, Ohio c. 1910-16 Watercolor on paper 9 x 13 inches 18 x 21 inches, as framed

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30 Bustling Public Square, Cleveland, Ohio 1912 Watercolor and graphite on paper 20 x 15 inches 28 x 23 inches, as framed

“Daily bicycling, riding from the South Side, afforded plenty of opportunity to remark the force of the elements and then visible manifestations. I became ever more aware of the altering traffic and the changing appearance of the city.”

31 Public Square & Superior St. from Park Building, Cleveland, Ohio 1912 Watercolor and graphite on paper Signed lower right 13.5 x 9.5 inches

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“In those days, such a sharp line was drawn between town and country that it was quite apparent to one of any age or interest. As compared to the present, our city would look relatively rural but we had plenty of smoke to distinguish it. Now I would welcome a sight of the sailing schooners in the flats. The old canal basin, the sight of steeples now, gone, or dwarfed by modern buildings. Then, we were truly the Forest City. Town had attractions we

32 Sunset on Church of the Covenant, Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio c. 1912 Tempera on board Signed lower right 16.5 x 21.5 inches 24.5 x 29 inches, as framed

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“Having spent a year in Paris sketching, I naturally turned my eye upon things near home. I found my methods quite applicable to picturesque subjects in town, such as the Old Viaduct, the Old Court House, Old Euclid Avenue churches and such things now treasured as historical records.”

later associated more with rural scenes such as the blacksmith shop and the livery stable.

We passed these on the way to school and always peered in curiosity to see the sparks fly from the anvil or to see the long dim rows of horse stalls and admire the shinning equipages.

Sometimes one of these would take us to the country – an all day journey but every minute of it something to be remembered.”

33 Along the Chagrin River, Ohio c. 1915 Watercolor on paper 11.25 x 15 inches 16 x 20 inches, as matted

34 June Morning, Cleveland, Ohio c. 1915 Watercolor on paper 11 x 15.5 inches

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A depiction of E. W. Stocker, seated to the far left, listening to a quarryman violinist on the Snow family farm. Owen Snow was a great lover of music. His wife, Frances Snow, would also play the violin in an unusual way. Instead of holding the instrument under her chin, she would play it upon her lap, as though it were a cello.

35 Italian Musicians / Quarrymen in Brecksville c. 1915 Fresco on plaster board 24 x 22 inches

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36 Study for Italian Musicians / Quarrymen in Brecksville c. 1915 Tempera on board 22 x 28 inches Galleon (verso), signed lower right, dated ‘19

“At dances, which followed all weddings, the music was usually a single fiddle, in Brecksville played by a popular mulatto gentleman. Within the home circle, Uncle Owen’s wife, Aunt Frank, did the playing. As a child she had learned to hold the fiddle vertically on her knee, and she continued to do so throughout her life. She used to include in her repertoire such tunes as ‘Haste to the Wedding,’ ‘Arkansas Traveler,’ and ‘Turkey in the Straw.’ Once, the younger people took her to town to see a great violinist, but Uncle Owen said he preferred to hear his wife play, because the fellow started to play a good tune and never finished it.” -Out in Brecksville 37 Italian Musicians / Quarrymen in Brecksville at Sunset c. 1915 Oil on canvas 50 x 40 inches WOLFS GALLERY |

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Wilcox painted The Reunion from his powerful memory of his family’s 1896 reunion. “Our family reunions, now almost forgotten locally, owed much to the closely knit ties that bind clans who seldom leave their native heath. This annual meeting took place in late August or early September, after harvest was over. But even so, it was often remarked that so-and-so could not come, on account of farm work. Even if his family was present, practically every farmer

38 The Reunion, Brecksville, Ohio c. 1920 Oil on canvas 36 x 37 inches 41 x 42.5 inches, as framed

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would ‘hitch up’ when the sun was still high in order to get back in time for the milking. First, whoever was that year’s host to entertain the interrelated households built tables and benches under the trees of his dooryard or in some nearby pine grove...I remember how festive the pine grove looked when the ladies began to place the tablecloth and set out the plates, knives, and forks….One likes to remember this bucolic scene under the checkered shade, the white dresses of the younger girls, and the little children running about among their more stolid elders. In the distance loomed the hazy summer hills, and mild breezes awoke the harping sound of the pine trees.” -Out in Brecksville

Photograph of the Snow Family Reunion in 1896. Wilcox, at the age of 9 years old, is the third child on the left, seated in the first row.

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39 Midday Plowing c. 1915 Watercolor and graphite on paper 21 x 30 inches 25 x 34 inches, as framed

“It has always been a question in my mind if environment, as a constant influence, is as effective in fostering a bent as occasional and more treasured experience. I believe that these relatively rare holidays in the country developed a liking for the rural scene. Friends and co-workers who were raised upon farms often seem to prefer other subject matter in their creative artistic work.”

40 Women’s Corner, Along the Cuyahoga River c. 1916 Watercolor and graphite on paper 21 x 29 inches 25 x 33 inches, as framed

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41 Stage House, Brecksville, Ohio c. 1936 Oil on canvas Signed lower right 34.5 x 38.25 inches 41.75 x 45.5 inches, as framed Exhibited: 1936 May Show, Cleveland Museum of Art.

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42 On the Back Porch, Brecksville, Ohio c. 1922 Watercolor on paper Monogram lower right 21.5 x 27. 5 inches 26.5 x 32.5 inches, as framed Photograph of the Snow grandchildren “On the Back Porch”

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Starting from the left, Uncle Harry Snow, his daughter either Jeanette or Charlotte, Grandma Snow, and his wife, Aunt Alice are pictured on the porch of what was called “the other house” of the two Snow family homes in Brecksville.

“The first district schools were log houses... A certain few were built of brick. Such schoolhouses were often to be found in very isolated locations, but intentionally so, to serve the convenience of the greater number of pupils, or ‘scholars,’ as they were commonly called.

They also served as meeting places for political and other practical purposes.”

-Out in Brecksville 43 The Entertainment c. 1955 Watercolor on paper Signed lower right 20 x 30 inches 23 x 33 inches, as framed Exhibited: 1955 May Show, Cleveland Museum of Art.

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44 Grandma Snow Sewing 1912 Tempera on board Dated lower right 18 x 16 inches 20 x 18 inches, as framed

Photograph of Grandma Snow 37

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45 Mary Wilcox at Age 6 1925 Watercolor on paper Signed lower left 21.5 x 14.5 inches An intimate portrait of the artist’s daughter, Mary Wilcox, at the age of 6 years old.

46 Mary Waking c. 1925 Watercolor on paper 13.75 x 20 inches

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“We were fortunate in that the two farms in Brecksville were still open to our visits. The urbanization of the township was then only beginning and we spent several summers there where I tried to capture something of the rural peace so soon to be erased from the countryside.”

47 The Wood Chopper, Brecksville, Ohio c. 1917 Oil on masonite 33 x 24 inches 39 x 31 inches, as framed Exhibited: “Water Colors and Oils by Frank N. Wilcox,” Cleveland Museum of Art, January 1937.

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48 The Saw Mill, Brecksville, Ohio c. 1922 Watercolor on paper 17.5 x 12.5 inches

49 Study for Haymow, Brecksville, Ohio c. 1922 Watercolor on paper 18 x 24 inches

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“The summer Mary was three years old, I began to get the hang of tonality in relation to the mood of a composition. We were living in an old house in Brecksville, and part of the time I commuted to summer school. At this time, I was better able to work hard and fast than any time before or since. There was no phase of sky or play of light or shadow that escaped me in that wellloved neighborhood. It had been a part of my childhood, and now I had the professional skill to interpret it.”

50 Plowman, Brecksville, Ohio c. 1922 Watercolor on paper Signed lower right 22.5 x 27.75 inches

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“Being a city boy I had no experience with farm machinery, but knew well the dangers of mowing machines, corn huskers and the like. Having a little experience with horses, I could appreciate the risks in driving them.” -Out in Brecksville

51 Binder, Brecksville, Ohio c. 1922 Watercolor on paper 18 x 24 inches

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“After Father’s death, I felt bound to respect Uncle Harry’s ideas much as I would have respected Father’s own. During one summer about this time, by haying and harvesting for Uncle Elwin Carter, I learned respect for farming to a degree and also got over any sense of urban-class superiority toward farming people. My very first lesson came from being told I could take the shady side of the load because they wished to break me in easy. With the sun constantly in my eye, I pitched hay all afternoon until about ready to drop.” -Out in Brecksville

52 In the Hay Barn, Brecksville, Ohio c. 1935 Watercolor on paper mounted on board Monogram lower right 15 x 20 inches 53 Man Plowing c. 1922 Graphite on paper Signed lower right 12 x 18 inches 19 x 21.5 inches, as framed

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54 In the Hay Barn, Brecksville, Ohio c. 1935 Watercolor on paper 9.25 x 13 inches

55 The Forge c. 1957 Watercolor on board Signed lower left 22 x 30 inches

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56 Brecksville Congregational Church from Front, Ohio, c. 1935 Watercolor on paper Signed lower right 27.5 x 21.5 inches

57 Study for Brecksville Congregational Church from Front, Ohio, c. 1935 Watercolor and graphite on paper 14.75 x 11 inches 45

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“No doubt the fact that we visited the farm at all seasons of the year developed in myself at least an appreciation of the significant tones of weather and all the moods pervading Nature. We visited there under many circumstances when human events colored our spirits variously and made us see things in a light reflecting our own mood. This is, perhaps, as to faithfully transcribe the literal phenomena of Nature.”

58 Bratton’s Garden, Brecksville, Ohio c. 1922 Tempera and watercolor on board Signed lower right 28 x 22 inches WOLFS GALLERY |

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59 Near the Ohio River, Monroe Co., Ohio c. 1921 Watercolor on paper 12.25 x 18.5 inches

60 Dry Dock at Akron, Ohio c. 1921 Watercolor on paper 12.25 x 18.5 inches

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61 Duck Hunting at Dawn c. 1922 Watercolor on Whatman board Signed lower right 15 x 21.5 inches 24 x 30 inches, as framed

62 Uncle Harry Plowing Near Sithelm’s, Brecksville, Ohio c. 1922 Watercolor on Whatman board 15 x 21 inches 24 x 30 inches, as framed

63 Baltimore & Ohio Railway Bridge 1 across the Cuyahoga River, Cleveland, Ohio c. 1924 Watercolor on paper 15 x 21 inches 24 x 30 inches, as framed

Baltimore & Ohio Railway Bridge 1 is a rolling Scherzer (named for the Chicago engineer William Scherzer) lift bridge and is believed to be the longest of its type. Its longest span is 230 feet, and it was constructed in 1907.

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64 Banks of Chippewa, Ohio c. 1934 Conté crayon and gouache on paper Signed lower right 13.5 x 15.75 inches

“Being given such impressions of a district at an early age makes for a wider knowledge of the surrounding territory that might be disappointing to visiting strangers. When we boys were old enough to explore the full length of the Chippewa, we discovered that it arose upon a flat and rather empty plateau, far less interesting than the old neighborhood, but probably constituting a better location, originally, for farming.” -Out in Brecksville

65 Backyard in Texas, Ohio c. 1945 Watercolor on paper 18 x 24 inches 49

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An autumn scene with Nela Park in the background, the headquarters of General Electric Lighting, rendered in watercolor. Wilcox also completed commercial drawings and posters for Nela Park later in his career.

66 Backyards Near Nela Park, East Cleveland c. 1950 Watercolor and graphite on paper Signed lower right 21 x 27 inches 27 x 32 inches, as framed

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American Scene “Many might claim that travel sketching leads only to anecdotal illustration, but I have found that every novel locale teaches something of the abstract in addition to one’s stock in trade.

There is always a quality of line, form, pattern or tonal key which, even by itself, is capable of suggesting its more realistic source in nature.

There are the things which really induce the artist to travel and to observe. They never will be apprehended from anecdotal records of things unfamiliar to actual experience.”

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67 Midnight Landing c. 1943 Oil on masonite Signed lower right 24 x 32 inches 29 x 37 inches, as framed Exhibited: 1943 May Show, Cleveland Museum of Art.

A nighttime scene of the ferry on the harbor of Lake Michigan in Luddington, Michigan.

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68 Steamboat Docking on the Ohio River c. 1920 Oil on board 24 x 30 inches Verso French Picnic

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69 The Iceboat, Cleveland, Ohio c. 1918 Watercolor and gouache on paper Initialed lower left 14.5 x 10.25 inches

“On another occasion, an artist who was painting a frieze for the dining hall laughed at me for working out in the cold. He showed me how he worked from photographs. Personally, I regarded this as cheating.”

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70 Hunting in the Cuyahoga Valley c. 1913 Watercolor and gouache on paper Signed lower right 21 x 29 inches 25 x 33 inches, as framed In this hunting scene, the artist depicts his father, Frank Nelson Wilcox Senior.

71 After the Blizzard 1959 Watercolor on Whatman board Signed and dated lower right 22 x 30 inches

72 The Ice Block c. 1914 Watercolor and graphite on paper 15 x 19 inches 22 x 27 inches, as framed

“I was never fortunate enough to be present when they cut ice in the pond behind the Brick House to store in the icehouse in the big pine grove. There it would be covered with sawdust and stay well into the following fall. It served to cool the milk from dairying at both houses and to make ice cream on Sundays in the summer.” - Out in Brecksville 55

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“On Olive Street, when we were old enough, we flew kites, viewed the wide panorama of the city with the blue lake to the North, and watched rockets and fire balloons on the night of the Fourth.”

73 Recalling the Fourth of July date unknown Oil on board 36 x 24.25 inches Verso Study for Fruit Pickers

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“Mowing, reaping, and other methods of gathering the harvest have become more mechanized and less a craft than they were in earlier days, so too less picturesque to the eye. An heroic man must have been required to set the pace with a grain cradle. Even mowing with the scythe is heavy work for the man of today.” -Out in Brecksville

74 Sharpening the Scythe c. 1916 Watercolor, gouache, graphite on board Signed lower right, verso 30 x 20 inches 57

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“We boys learned the skill in taking two bundles of wheat at a time, to start setting up a shock of eight pairs, which we capped by splitting two more bundles for the top. Walking around in the stubble made our shoes slippery, and it was a hard job on a hot day. The sight, however, of a field of wheat harvested by this method was very pretty.” -Out in Brecksville

75 The Hay Field c. 1916 Oil on board 24 x 35 inches 30 x 41.5 inches, as framed

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76 Reflections along the Ohio River c. 1920 Watercolor and graphite on board Signed lower left 22 x 30 inches

77 Frosty Dawn, Upstate New York c. 1916 Watercolor and gouache on board Signed lower right 21 x 30 inches

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78 Circus Lot at Toledo c. 1920 Watercolor on Whatman board Signed lower right 22 x 30 inches

79 Train on Horseshoe Curve, Norfolk Southern Railway’s Pittsburgh Line, c. 1923 Watercolor on paper Signed lower left 21 x 29 inches 27 x 35 inches, as framed

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“The trip Otto Ege and I made from Pittsburgh to Marietta by riverboat and then by train to Mammoth Cave, was the next high spot in my artistic explorations. We saw something of the Old Southern river life on the way - the roustabouts, the showboat and river town life at Point Pleasant, and then to the sombre tonal mysteries of the Cave. These sights added much to my pictorial vocabulary…”

80 Stevedores, Ohio River c. 1920 Watercolor on paper Signed lower right 21.5 x 29. 5 inches 27 x 35.25 inches, as framed

81 Stevedores, Ohio River c. 1920 Contè crayon on paper Signed lower right 12 x 16.25 inches

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82 Cows by Woodland Pond, Toledo, Ohio c. 1920 Watercolor and graphite on board Signed lower right 22 x 30 inches

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83 Turkeys in the Trees c. 1922 Watercolor on paper Signed lower right 22 x 29 inches 26 x 35 inches, as framed

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“Mother used to see wild turkeys cross the road from the deep ravine behind the schoolyard.”

-Out in Brecksville

84 The Milkmaid, Brecksville, Ohio c. 1922 Gouache on paper Signed lower left 21 x 29 inches 26 x 34 inches, as framed

85 House Call (Doctor’s Buggy) c. 1922 Watercolor on paper 21.5 x 30 inches 28 x 36.5 inches, as framed

Dr. Louis Knowlton, shown in his doctor’s buggy en route to treat a patient, was a Civil War veteran with a bullet wound in his leg that never healed. It is said that he used to treat the unhealed wound with whiskey everyday. In his final years, Knowlton lived in the Stage Coach Inn in Brecksville, a place which is also shown in this exhibition. Wilcox likely painted this scene from his memory.

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86 Mountaineer with Dogs c. 1932 Conté crayon on paper Signed lower left 11 x 15 inches 20 x 23 inches, as framed

87 Study of Mountaineer with Dogs c. 1932 Conté crayon on paper 10 x 13.5. inches

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“Something about this region induces our interest in American pioneer history, probably because it was, for so long, a formidable barrier to western migration, and yet retains a spirit of savage wildness.”

“I went back to etching after the first mountain trip, and did a serious descriptive of the life of the mountaineer - logging, corn harvesting, hunting, and such things.” Created as a study for a later series of prints, this drawing focuses on the composition of a mountaineer hunting with one of his dogs in the foreground.

88 Mountaineer on Mule Drawn Wagon Trail c. 1924 Watercolor and graphite on paper Signed lower left 15 x 21 inches 22 x 28 inches, as framed

“The effect of this mountain landscape upon both of us was such as to remark the importance of the skyline in panoramic landscape. The undulations of these near and remote peaks, we saw accentuated by the proximity of lowhanging clouds or revealed near and far by the sharpness of light along the remote horizon. We noticed the changing effect of vertical distance as shadows variously cross or filled the depths of the ravines and passes.”

89 Peaks in the Smoky Mountains from Hot Springs in Winter, North Carolina c.1932 Watercolor on paper 15 x 20 inches

“There were three trips to Hot Springs, North Carolina... On the first trip, made in October... I saw the hills at their Sunday best - great rounded masses... As we climbed the ridges, the dark pines seemed to turn a paler green against the deepening sky; and the outlines of the hills faded off into infinity. This is the country for the romantic panorama - a quality not to be compressed into a small roughly painted canvas. When I went down in winter, the peaks cast long shadows over the depths even at noon. We saw town and river veiled in blue shadow... The wintry sun was surrounded by a misty halo, presaging the heavy snowstorm the night we left for home.”

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90 Approaching Storm at Lake Erie c. 1928 Watercolor on paper 24 x 28 inches

“I have found that my early interest in the figure, architecture and sheer picturesque anecdote changed into a more comprehensive grasp of things as a unit, in which the mood of the subject became its abstract meaning. I see no value in an abstract pattern, since such a thing cannot interpret the reaction to a comprehensive whole – rather, instead, it is towards some isolated and positive momentary experience. As one cannot successfully interpret a momentary atmospheric illusion, no more can he put much meaning into a too positive pattern and hold the interest of the beholder for long.”

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91 Marine Improvisation, Atlantic Coast c. 1957 Watercolor and gouache on Whatman board Signed lower right 22 x 30 inches

92 Crashing Waves on the Atlantic Coast 1957 Watercolor and graphite on paper Signed and dated lower right 22 x 29 inches 29 x 37 inches, as framed WOLFS GALLERY |

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93 Miami and Erie Canal c. 1933 Watercolor and graphite on board Signed lower left 22 x 30 inches, board

94 Boat in Lock at the Miami-Erie-Wabash Canal, Ohio c. 1934 Watercolor on paper 18.5 x 24 inches

95 Dual on the Ohio and Erie Canal Towpath Trail 1947 Watercolor and gouache on paper Signed and dated lower right 21 x 29 inches 29 x 37 inches, as framed

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96 Study for Tree at Roanoke Island, Virginia c. 1954 Watercolor on paper Signed lower right 15 x 20 inches

97 Dune Sandscape, Roanoke Island, Virginia 1954 Watercolor on paper Signed and dated lower right 26 x 20 inches

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98 Palm Trees along the Swamps of Florida 1959 Watercolor and gouache on board Signed and dated lower right 22 x 30 inches

99 Orange Grove, Florida c. 1959 Watercolor on Whatman board Signed lower right 22 x 30 inches

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100 Sheepherder in Mountains 1953 Watercolor on Whatman board Signed and dated lower right 22 x 30 inches

101 Sheep on the Pasture 1959 Watercolor on paper Signed and dated lower right 22 x 29 inches 27 x 35 inches, as framed

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France/Europe “I found that my drawing aroused as much approval among Parisian and foreign students as at home. This was a great boost to my spirits after suffering the first weeks of homesickness.

Paris soon ceased to be the unpaintable overpowering mystery and became real enough to draw tangibly.”

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Skinny Dipping in the Seine, Paris, France 1925 Oil on canvas Signed and dated lower right 25 x 31 inches 31.5 x 37.5 inches, as framed Exhibited: 122nd Annual Exhibition of Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts,1927; Cleveland Society of Artists Exhibition of Fine Arts, 1930.

See page 101

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FIRST TRIP TO EUROPE (1910-11)

“Even fits of homesickness have a value to the painter, for then what he sees is haunting and sharp in his memory.”

102 Gibraltar from the Ship, Southern Spain c. 1910-11 Watercolor on paper Monogram lower left 9.25 x 13 inches

“The idea of going to Paris did not occur to me at once - nor was it my own idea. This came late the following summer after studying at Berlin Heights. It was the idea of Cousin Winona Payne who wished me to accompany her son Kenneth Payne, only slightly younger than me. He was going to the Sorbonne to prepare for a career as a writer.”

103 Chateaubrand from Plage St. Malo, France c. 1911 Watercolor on paper mounted on board Signed lower right 9.5 x 13 inches

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104 Venetian Canal c. 1910-11 Tempera on board Signed lower right 24 x 30 inches

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“Kenneth and I took a long walking trip around the coast of Brittany and up the Loire. Incessant work increased my stock of material and quickened the power to describe what we saw – suffice it to say we drank in a full draft of romance on this trip through the towns and fields of the old provinces... For some reason I remember Karnac in Brittany very clearly – probable a foretaste of a coming interest in archeology.”

105 Kenneth at Carnac, Brittany, France 1911 Watercolor and graphite on paper Monogram lower right 13 x 9.25 inches Exhibited: “A Buckeye Abroad: Frank Wilcox in Paris 1910-1926” from August 24, 2013-January 5, 2014 at The Dayton Art Institute 77

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106 Boats at Concarneau, France c. 1910-11 Watercolor and graphite on paper Monogram lower right 13 x 9.5 inches Exhibited: “A Buckeye Abroad: Frank Wilcox in Paris 1910-1926” from August 24, 2013-January 5, 2014 at The Dayton Art Institute

107 Beach at Carnac, Brittany, France 1911 Watercolor on paper Monogram lower right 13 x 9.25 inches Exhibited: “A Buckeye Abroad: Frank Wilcox in Paris 1910-1926” from August 24, 2013-January 5, 2014 at The Dayton Art Institute

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“When in Europe, I use to offset homesickness by thinking of the rural peace of Brecksville and Berlin Heights - by thinking of the rolling hills, winding roads, quiet farmsteads and pastures with grazing horses and cattle. I often longed to wonder freely in open country with no limits set to errant feet.”

108 Tour St. Germain L’Auxerrois, Paris, France c. 1910-11 Watercolor on paper 18 x 24.5 inches 25.5 x 31 inches, as framed

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“I believe I saw Paris at a golden period. There was as yet no hint of coming warfare, and the automotive vehicle had not yet done away with much picturesque traffic.” Before leaving, he exhibited in the Spring Salon of 1911, an accolade he was able to use to his successful benefit when he returned to Cleveland.

109 Sundown in Luxembourg 1910 Watercolor and graphite on paper Signed lower right 14 x 18 inches 26 x 29 inches, as framed Exhibited: “A Buckeye Abroad: Frank Wilcox in Paris 1910-1926” from August 24, 2013-January 5, 2014 at The Dayton Art Institute

110 Children Playing, Luxembourg c. 1910 Conté crayon on paper 16.25 x 19.75 inches

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111 Mattress Renovators, Pont Neuf, Paris, France, c. 1910 Watercolor and graphite on paper Monogram lower right 9.75 x 14 inches 17.25 x 21 inches, as framed Exhibited: “A Buckeye Abroad: Frank Wilcox in Paris 1910-1926” from August 24, 2013-January 5, 2014 at The Dayton Art Institute

112 The Fort at Meudon 1911 Watercolor and graphite on paper Monogram lower right 9 x 13 inches 17 x 21 inches, as framed

“It was moody autumnal weather with the sun stabbing through the clouds and picking out famous buildings and towers. I could not resist launching out upon a campaign of sketching in pencil and watercolor which kept me busy for a year, in which time there was scarcely a corner of the great city I did not visit.”

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Wilcox continually sketched during his travels, adding washes of watercolor to whatever subject he came across on the streets. He much preferred “the real Paris,” the Latin Quarter of the left bank, where tourists seldom visited.

113 Blanchisseuse Leaving a Laundry Barge, Paris, France c. 1910 Watercolor and graphite on paper Monogram lower right 13 x 9.25 inches 21 x 17 inches, as framed Exhibited: “A Buckeye Abroad: Frank Wilcox in Paris 1910-1926” from August 24, 2013-January 5, 2014 at The Dayton Art Institute WOLFS GALLERY |

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114 Tumbrels Bowing in Prayer towards Notre Dame 1910 Watercolor and graphite on paper Signed lower right 9 x 13 inches 17 x 21 inches, as framed

115 River Dredging Across from Magasins de la Samaritaines 1910 Watercolor and graphite on paper Monogram lower right 14 x 10 inches 21 x 17 inches, as framed

“The watercolors painted on this European trip were done in color values supported by pencil accents - a method which I stumbled upon and which proved speedy and effective.”

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116 Tour St. Germain L’Auxerois 1911 Watercolor and graphite on paper Monogram lower left 13 x 8 inches 21 x 17 inches, as framed

117 Dismantled Barge, Paris, France c. 1910-11 Watercolor on board Monogram bottom right 9.25 x 13 inches Exhibited: “A Buckeye Abroad: Frank Wilcox in Paris 1910-1926” from August 24, 2013-January 5, 2014 at The Dayton Art Institute

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SECOND TRIP TO EUROPE (1914)

“In spite of the curtailment of my journeyings, many useful sketches came out of those few weeks; and these arrived safely thanks to having mailed them previous to the declaration of war by England.”

118 The Cathedral of Mainz, Germany c. 1914 Watercolor and graphite on paper mounted on board Monogram lower right 12.75 x 9. 5 inches

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119 Masts and Steeple, Dordrecht, Netherlands c. 1914 Watercolor and graphite on paper Monogram lower right 12.25 x 9.5 inches Exhibited: “A Buckeye Abroad: Frank Wilcox in Paris 1910-1926” from August 24, 2013-January 5, 2014 at The Dayton Art Institute

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120 Mill at Leiden, Netherlands 1914 Gouache and graphite on paper Signed and dated lower left 18 x 11.5 inches

“In this short trip, two things stand out in strong contrast - the earlier peace and quiet of Holland and the picture of Europe in the first throes of war.”

121 Molen de Adriaan, Haarlem, Netherlands c. 1914 Graphite and watercolor on paper mounted on board Signed lower right 11.75 x 9.5 inches

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122 Frankfurt Cathedral, Germany c. 1914 Graphite and watercolor on paper Monogram lower right 12.25 x 9.5 inches

“I was arrested under suspicion twice that day, and finally made my escape to Holland by a ruse that fortunately worked... My first attempt to get out of Cologne got me as far as Brussels where I had to retreat again to Cologne. The scenes at the frontiers were harrowing, accompanied by qualities in the sky and landscape which I felt, but which might, under other circumstances, have seemed more normal. All I could think of was getting home where one could see no crowded small cities and where elms stood in wide pastures as in Brecksville.”

123 “Minnie Haw Haw” c. 1914 Charcoal and gouache on paper Monogram lower right 13 x 9.25 inches Exhibited: “A Buckeye Abroad: Frank Wilcox in Paris 1910-1926” from August 24, 2013-January 5, 2014 at The Dayton Art Institute

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THIRD AND FINAL TRIP TO EUROPE (1926-7)

“After fifteen years, the streets of Paris and provincial France held a different kind of interest. At this time, I felt oil painting necessary to a complete competence, although it was a slow and more laborious process. We were tied down to a development in oil. This resulted in my doing much more with formal composition, with a tendency toward the decorative.”

124 Silent Prayers at St. Malo, France 1925 Watercolor and gouache on board Signed and dated lower right 19 x 24 inches

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125 Clouds at La Valliere, France c. 1926-7 Watercolor on paper 11 x 14 inches 17.5 x 21.5 inches, as framed

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126 Gathering Kelp, St. Malo, France c. 1926 Watercolor on paper 15 x 21 inches 24 x 30 inches, as framed

127 Plage and Ramparts, St. Malo. France c. 1926 Watercolor on paper 15 x 19.5 inches

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128 Gathering Kelp, St. Malo, France c. 1926 Tempera on paper Signed lower right 18 x 24 inches 31 x 35 inches, as framed

129 Plage at St. Malo, France c. 1926 Watercolor on paper Signed lower right 15 x 18.75 inches WOLFS GALLERY |

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130 People of St. Malo, France c. 1926 Oil on canvas Signed lower right 34.5 x 38 inches 38.5 x 43 inches, as framed Exhibited: 1927 May Show (1st Place), Cleveland Museum of Art.

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131 Entering the Village, Charenton, France c. 1926 Watercolor on paper Signed lower right 19.75 x 16.5 inches

132 Houses by the Marne, Charenton, France c. 1926-7 Watercolor on paper 18.25 x 15 inches WOLFS GALLERY |

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133 Home in the Village, Mt. St. Michel, France c. 1926 Watercolor on board Signed lower right 21.75 x 28 inches

134 Breton Figures at Mt. St. Michel, France c. 1926 Oil on panel Signed lower right 24 x 32 inches 28 x 37 inches, as framed

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135 Resting, Brittany, France c. 1926 Watercolor on paper Signed lower right 18.75 x 24.5 inches

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136 Entering Paris, View of Hôtel de Ville, Paris, France c. 1926 Oil on board 24.5 x 18.25 inches, as framed 137 Study for Entering Paris, View of Hôtel de Ville, Paris, France c. 1926 Oil on board 36 x 24 inches

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138 Seine and Conciergerie, Paris, France c. 1926-7 Watercolor on paper Monogram lower right 14.75 x 17.75 inches

139 Notre Dame from the Île de la Cité, Paris, France c. 1926 Watercolor on paper Signed lower right 18 x 24 inches 25.5 x 31.25 inches, as framed Exhibited: “A Buckeye Abroad: Frank Wilcox in Paris 1910-1926” from August 24, 2013-January 5, 2014 at The Dayton Art Institute WOLFS GALLERY |

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140 Loire at Tours and View of the Cathedral c. 1926 Watercolor on paper Signed lower right 16 x 19 inches 26 x 29 inches, as framed

141 Loire at Tours c. 1926-7 Watercolor on paper 15.25 x 20 inches

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142 Church in Old Paris 1926 Watercolor on paper Signed lower right 19 x 16 inches 30 x 26 inches, as framed

143 Rainy Paris c. 1926 Watercolor on board Signed lower right 22 x 30 inches Exhibited: 1956 May Show, Cleveland Museum of Art. WOLFS GALLERY |

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144 Skinny Dipping in the Seine, Paris, France 1925 Oil on canvas Signed and dated lower right 25 x 31 inches 31.5 x 37.5 inches, as framed Exhibited: 122nd Annual Exhibition of Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, 1927; Cleveland Society of Artists Exhibition of Fine Arts, 1930.

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145 Porte de Clignancourt, Paris, France c. 1926-7 Oil on board 23.5 x 29.5 inches 30 x 36 inches, as framed Exhibited: “A Buckeye Abroad: Frank Wilcox in Paris 1910-1926” from August 24, 2013-January 5, 2014 at The Dayton Art Institute

Photograph of Wilcox posing in front of Porte de Clignancourt

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146 Barge on the Seine c. 1926 Watercolor on paper 15.25 x 21.5 inches

147 Cliffs at Paramé, France c. 1926 Watercolor on paper Signed lower right 15.25 x 19.25 inches

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148 Cliffs near Paramé, France c. 1926-7 Watercolor on paper Signed lower right 11 x 14.5 inches 19 x 22.5 inches, as framed

149 Cliff at Paramé, France c. 1926 Watercolor on paper Signed lower right 14 x 17.5 inches

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The North Eastern Coast “The work I did at Boothbay was the first real step forward for me since my Paris days…

These sketches were fuller in tone and not dependent upon a linear support to hold them together. I took great pleasure in directly molding the rock formations and contrasting them with fluid skies.”

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150 View Towards Christmas Cove, Maine c. 1923 Watercolor on paper 14 x 19.5 inches 24 x 29.5 inches, as framed

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151 Manana Island from a Distance, Maine c. 1923 Watercolor on paper Signed lower right 14 x 20 inches

152 Rocks of White Island c. 1923 Watercolor on paper Signed lower right 14 x 20 inches

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“On a second trip to Boothbay...the wooded north reminded me of childhood days in Georgian Bay, except that a grander topography was there. It was only recently, after reading Thoreau, that I realized how this experience had opened my eyes to the interest to be found in trees, rocks, topography and wide and brooding skies. Much of this intensity of reaction may have been due to the fact that I was seeing the scenes known to Mother’s ancestors before migrating to Ohio. We were to see more of this kind of country in more northern Gaspé at a later date. On such excursions, one becomes aware of the need of a special palette - the extra blues and the contrasting keys of sky and earth.”

153 Shore of White Island, Maine c. 1923 Watercolor on paper 15 x 19.5 inches 24.75 x 28.25 inches, as framed

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154 “Washer Woman” Monhegan Island, Maine c. 1923 Watercolor on paper mounted on board Signed lower right 15 x 20 inches

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155 Headland & Rocks, White Island, Maine c. 1923 Watercolor on paper 15 x 19.5 inches 24 x 28.5 inches, framed

156 On Monhegan Island, Maine c. 1923 Watercolor on paper Signed lower right 15 x 20 inches

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157 Schooner in South Inlet, Boothbay, Maine c. 1928 Watercolor on paper 15 x 20 inches

158 Wreck near Boothbay, Maine c. 1928-9 Watercolor on paper Signed lower right 15 x 20 inches 111

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159 The Wreck of the Mary Weaver, Boothbay, Maine c. 1924 Watercolor on paper Signed lower right 14 x 20 inches

Photograph of the “Wreck of the Mary Weaver”

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160 Fish Cleaners, Manana Island, Monhegan, Maine c. 1923 Watercolor on paper 15 x 19.5 inches 23.5 x 28.5 inches, as framed

161 Manana Island Sunrise, Monhegan, Maine c. 1923 Watercolor on paper 15 x 20 inches

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162 Fisherman’s Island, Boothbay, Maine c. 1925 Watercolor on paper Signed lower left 15 x 20 inches

“It was at Boothbay that I was able to develop a certain capacity for pure watercolor work that stood me in good stead later on in the teaching of landscape… At this time, my work was considered to be very bold and daring, although this was not my aim.”

163 Russ Snow Farm, Maine c. 1932 Watercolor on paper Monogram lower right 15 x 20 inches WOLFS GALLERY |

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“Alfred Mewitt had been on a trip to the little known Gaspé Peninsula and urged me, the next summer, to go there on a sketching trip. At the time, the region was practically unknown to tourists, and one felt the full spirit of its northern isolation, its wildness, and a quaintness and human existence so dominated by the force of the elements. There were wide horizons, portentous clouds and fogs, and the looming rocks and headlands. All these things fitted my color sense and watercolor technique.”

164 Hay Wagon at Percé Rock, Gaspé, Canada c. 1929 Watercolor on paper mounted on board Signed lower left and right 14 x 20 inches

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165 Percé Rock from Ferguson, Gaspé, Canada c. 1929 Watercolor on paper Signed lower right 13.75 x 20 inches

“Spending, as we did, most of our time at Percé village, the rock, the colored cliffs, the barachois and Norman fishing craft afforded plenty of intimate anecdote.”

Photograph of Wilcox at Percé Rock, Gaspé, Canada, c. 1929

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166 Tide Patterns, Percé Beach, Gaspé, Canada c. 1929 Watercolor on paper Signed lower right 11 x 14.75 inches

“I found the Gaspésian scene suggestive to the use of line - for there were foreshortened beaches, boats, and long, sweeping ranks of clouds over the sea.”

167 Bonaventure Island, Canada c. 1929 Watercolor on paper mounted on board Signed lower right 14.75 x 20 inches 117

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“For a painter, the region seemed to be ready-made - all in bold, simple forms and masses of contrasting color under the sunlight, but often softened by fog and drifting mist.”

168 Fog over North Beach, Percé Rock, Gaspé, Canada c. 1929 Watercolor on paper Signed lower left 13.75 x 20 inches

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“To sit and gaze at Gaspé cliffs is to realize how petty all such artificially germinated ideas from urban art circles really are. Man can invent novel ideas within the limits of his narrow environment, but unspoiled nature is often a reproach to his shortsightedness. Marin undoubtedly felt the underlying significance of nature, but his followers apparently saw only the bizarre superficial quality of his intrinsic surface and the mere pattern of his conventions.”

169 Percé Rock by Moonlight, Bonaventure Island, Gaspé, Canada c. 1929 Watercolor on paper Signed lower right 14 x 20 inches

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“At this time, watercolor painting was appreciated as a pure style; and perhaps my peak of achievement as a technician in this craft developed through practice in that region.”

170 Bird Sanctuary, Bonaventure Island, Canada c. 1929 Watercolor on paper Signed lower left 14.5 x 19 inches

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“On the second trip to Gaspé the family went along, and we had a wonderful experience together… The following year, Carle Semon went up with all his photographic equipment. It was a great pleasure to work along with this master craftsman whose ideals fitted in with mine.

The previous year there was a New York photographer there, Paul Strand, and he and his wife were full of the doctrine of Stieglitz and John Marin. The presence of people of this type in Gaspé spoiled the place for me to some degree, since they had a cultist point of view for which Gaspé was no better than anything else. Whereas Semon felt the spirit of the place, they saw it through a formula. My preliminary sketches startled them to the extent that they admitted Marin tendences in them. This necessary abstractionism was, to them, and end in itself.”

171 Pulling in the Boats by Percé Rock, Gaspé, Canada c. 1929 Watercolor on paper Signed lower right 15 x 20 inches

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172 Oxen on Road, Gaspé, Canada 1932 Watercolor on board Signed and dated lower right 15.25 x 21 inches

173 Boats and Houses, Barachois, Nova Scotia, Canada c. 1932 Watercolor on paper 11 x 14.5 inches 17.5 x 21.5 inches, as framed

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174 Two Girls Posed on Rocks on Bonaventure Island, Canada c. 1929 Watercolor on board 21 x 28 inches

“There were always lively groups of figures to be sketched and weather effects to be seen over Bonaventure Island and Mount. St. Anne.”

175 Clam Diggers at Chaleur Bay c. 1943 Oil on board Signed lower right 24 x 32 inches Exhibited: 1943 May Show, Cleveland Museum of Art.

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176 Three Girls on the Rocks (Sirens) c. 1930 Oil on canvas Signed lower right 39 x 49 inches 47.75 x 57.75 inches, as framed Private Collection

“I discovered that any attempt to render the Canadian subjects in oils always made me fall into the style I had developed in Paris in 1927.”

177 Study of Girls Posed on Rocks on Bonaventure Island c. 1929 Conté crayon on paper Signed lower right 13.25 x 17.25 inches

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Ohio Indian Trails, The Ohio Canals and Weather Wisdom

The Standing Stone Trail c. 1933.

As reproduced in Frank N. Wilcox and William A. McGill, Ohio Indian Trails (Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 2015), color section following page 106.

“The experiences which led up to my writing ‘Ohio Indian Trails,’ began with various trips around the State with Alfred Mewett...On one occasion, we traveled west and down the old Miami and Erie Canal to Cincinnati, and reached Marietta part of the way by picturesque river packet. Another trip took in all the Muskingum and Mahoning valleys. I found my interest in Ohio history growing, especially that part dealing with the old Indian paths...

At this time, I was quite disgusted with creative art, but these experiences actually provided an ultimate stimulus to return to it.”

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Starting in 1930, Wilcox began focusing on research for his first book Ohio Indian Trails, a New York Times bestseller, which led him towards a more historical, archaeological, and topographical mindset. He was racing time trying to document, in writing and in drawing, the historic Native Americans in Ohio before urbanization completely took over. Wilcox was also attempting to unveil what was positive about the American frontier, explaining the diplomacy and commerce of the trails, as well as document historic events and notable figures.

Boat in Lock at the Miami-Erie-Wabash Canal, Ohio c. 1934 Watercolor on paper 18.5 x 24 inches

“When the University was sponsoring private historical research, I went with Mr. Frary through local regions celebrated in early history.

Fortunately I was asked, for my contribution, to talk at the Old Red Lock at our ancestral farm. This may have been responsible for future study of the Ohio Canal System, upon which I was to do considerable writing.”

Another pictorial survey by Wilcox, The Ohio Canals was published after the author’s death in 1969. Wilcox lamented for the romanticized past, stimulated by memories of his childhood.

He researched and recorded the era of the Ohio canals through narrative and artwork.

“When the Days Begin to Lengthen...”

As reproduced in Frank N. Wilcox, Weather Wisdom (Cleveland, Ohio, 1949), 1.

“I have always felt that the visible evidences of weather to come were more apparent out there on the farm than elsewhere, even upon the flat prairie. I imagine this is due to the fact the atmospheric tones of the valley depths were added to those extending to the sweeping horizon. All the subtle differences in contrast, such as the depth of shadow on snowfields at varying distances, may have been subconsciously noted and calculated by observers seemingly so weatherwise.”

-Out in Brecksville

In 1949, Wilcox published a limited edition, only 50 copies, of Weather Wisdom, which encompassed a series of 24 Brecksville silkscreen prints accompanied by narrative and commentary. Wilcox was consistently interested in weather and atmospheric effects, challenging himself to faithfully capture it in his art. Later in his life, he was able to reflect upon his years of visits to Brecksville, throughout the different seasons, and devote that effort into a book he could write, illustrate, and publish.

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Travels West “Also, on this second trip the significant colors of the Southwest became apparent – the preponderance of reds and yellows of a sort so seldom seen in Eastern landscapes, and the noticeable transitions of blue that those western skies reveal. In many cases also the usual three-plane composition familiar to us in the East was seldom sufficient to account for the stages of depth a rarified atmosphere produces.”

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178 Riders through the Canyon c. 1941 Oil on board Signed lower right 24 x 32.25 inches

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“A decided phase of my outlook on painting may be attributed to the western trip with Alec Barnes one summer in the late thirties. Going with him was done on the impulse as I had had no notion of ever going west. Travel in Europe had made me rather impatient of the ‘See America First’ idea. However, when the idea was proposed, it appealed to me, since I knew that, under such circumstances, it would be advantageous for sketching new ideas.”

179 Shoeing the Horse c.1941 Oil on board Signed lower left 24 x 32 inches

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180 Gilbert’s Camp c. 1941 Watercolor on Whatman board Signed lower right 22 x 30 inches 26.25 x 34.25 inches, as framed

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181 Peak in New Mexico c. 1937 Watercolor on paper Monogram lower right 11 x 14 inches

“As fast as the scenery changed, my enthusiasm for sketching through the windshield increased. Down ditches we saw dust devils spinning. The terraced mud of the Wolf and the Platte was a new topographical feature entirely new. It revealed the nature of the difficulties faced by the covered wagons of the immigrants into the West. We even saw buffalo, though tame, at Grand Island. The next striking feature was the passing Pine Bluffs, where the most radical change of topography was revealed and beyond them appeared the western sagebrush and buffalo grass.”

182 Nearing the Peaks 1937 Watercolor on paper Signed and dated lower right 15 x 20 inches 21 x 26 inches, as framed

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183 Canyon at Evening 1937 Watercolor on paper Signed and dated lower right 14 x 19 inches

184 Red Cliffs and Hogan, Arizona 1937 Watercolor on paper Signed and dated lower right 14 x 19 inches

185 Sand Devil’s, Arizona 1939 Watercolor on paper Signed and dated lower right 14 x 19 inches

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186 Rio Puerco, New Mexico, c. 1940-1 Watercolor on paper Monogram lower right 15 x 20 inches

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187 Indian Riders c. 1940 Watercolor on paper Signed lower right 14.5 x 19.75 inches

188 Ramada at Taos, New Mexico c. 1940-1 Watercolor on paper Monogram lower right 14.75 x 19.75 inches

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189 La Ramada, New Mexico c. 1940-1 Watercolor on paper Signed lower right 14.5 x 20 inches

190 Indian Riders on Cliff c. 1940 Watercolor and graphite on board Signed lower right, verso 22 x 30 inches

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“All these things are, of course, common knowledge to the seasoned traveler, but, to one who has not seen them, they can be extremely stimulating to the imagination, especially if he has tried to be content, as an artist, with his ordinary environment. All of California, Arizona and New Mexico have plenty of diversity, but may seem much the same to the undiscerning eye.”

191 Sun Drenched Pueblo c. 1950 Watercolor on paper Monogram lower right 15 x 20 inches

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“Also, on this second trip the significant colors of the Southwest became apparent – the preponderance of reds and yellows of a sort so seldom seen in Eastern landscapes, and the noticeable transitions of blue that those western skies reveal. In many cases also the usual three-plane composition familiar to us in the East was seldom sufficient to account for the stages of depth a rarified atmosphere produces.”

192 Riders Near Entrance to Zion Canyon, Utah c. 1940 Watercolor and gouache on paper Signed lower right 14 x 19 inches 24 x 29 inches, as framed

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193 Black Mesa, Colorado c. 1950 Watercolor on paper 19 x 24 inches

194 Moraine Valley, Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado, c. 1950 Watercolor on paper 19 x 24 inches WOLFS GALLERY |

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195 Beaver Pond near Longs Peak, Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado c. 1950 Watercolor on paper 19 x 24 inches

196 Shower at Head of Valley c. 1950 Watercolor on paper 19 x 24 inches 139

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197 Moraine and Snow Peaks, Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado c. 1950 Watercolor on paper 19 x 24 inches

“My biggest thrill came when, somewhat east of Cheyenne, we saw the serrated distant peaks of the Rockies filling the whole western half of the horizon – a pale blue edge to the earth seen in the blinding light of sunset. For the first time, I saw a whole city lying like but a small dark patch in a wide basin, with the shadows of the foothills reaching towards it and the peaks now larger and dark beyond.”

198 Head of Moraine Valley, Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado c. 1950 Watercolor on paper 19 x 24 inches WOLFS GALLERY |

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“But all these superficial details were as nothing compared to the linear change in the lines of hills, growing from undulating to sharp and angular. The outcropping of laminated rocks and the sharp cuttings of erosion on so grand a scale were exciting to a draftsman by nature.”

199 Construction on the Pass, Montana c. 1950 Watercolor on Whatman board 22 x 30 inches

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200 On the Top, Montana 1952 Watercolor and gouache on board Signed and dated lower right 22 x 30 inches

201 Shower on Peaks, Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado c. 1950 Watercolor on paper 19 x 24 inches WOLFS GALLERY |

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202 Oxen and Mule Drawn Wagon on the Trail 1949 Oil on board Signed and dated lower right 22 x 30 inches

203 Pilot and Index in a Shower, Wyoming c. 1950 Watercolor on Whatman board 22 x 30 inches 143

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“When Florence and I went to Montana by air, we perceived something still different – a landscape more sweeping and more mellow in tone and color... The outstanding experience of this trip was, for both of us, the plane ride over our national geography.”

204 Snow Line, Rocky Mountain National Park 1954 Watercolor on paper Signed and dated lower right 24 x 19 inches Exhibited: 1954 May Show, Cleveland Museum of Art.

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Little-Bigs “We looked at approximately two hundred of the finest small-scale watercolors I have ever seen, all neatly matted, numbered, and bundled. A master indeed! What you see on these pages is a sampling in color and monochrome of what Wilcox has been doing in recent months to ‘occupy his time.’ In large measure these watercolors represent a kind of artistic nostalgia, a return to the romantic scenes of the artist’s youth when rural America was colored by a quieter way of life, to the times and places that have left an indelible impression on his memory.

They were drawn on bond paper, often directly with a felt pen, and watercolor washes added.”

-Norman Kent, “The Little-Big Watercolor of Frank. N. Wilcox,” American Artist, 1963

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Later in his life, Wilcox created small-scale watercolors, which Norman Kent coined as, “The Little-Big Watercolors of Frank N. Wilcox” in his article in American Artist, of which he was the editor for twenty-five years.

205 Cable Car, Cleveland, Ohio c. 1959 Watercolor and ink on paper Signed lower right 8.5 x 11 inches

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206 Up to the Station, Cleveland, Ohio, c. 1959 Watercolor and ink on paper Signed lower right 8.5 x 11 inches

207 Old South Water Street, Cleveland, Ohio c. 1959 Watercolor and ink on paper Signed lower right 9 x 12 inches

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208 Embarkation 1959 Watercolor and ink on paper Signed and dated lower right 8 x 10.5 inches

209 Lightning Strike c. 1959 Watercolor and ink on paper Signed and titled lower right 8.5 x 11 inches

“None of us will forget the night lightning struck the big barn at the Brick House.

It was impossible to save it, of course, but Uncle Harry exerted herculean strength in pulling down connecting fences and moving wagons out of range.” -Out in Brecksville

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210 Recollection of Wilcox Place c. 1959 Watercolor and ink on paper Signed lower right 8.5 x 10.75 inches

211 The Fish Man 1959 Watercolor and ink on paper Signed and dated lower right 8.5 x 11 inches 149

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212 The Carpet Weaver c. 1959 Watercolor and ink on paper Signed lower right 8.5 x 11 inches

“To me, because he resented the urbanization of Brecksville, Uncle Harry Snow personified the older farm existence. He indicated to me the extent to which he was affected by the changing environment, and how much a part of it he had once been... but clearly he felt these urges keenly, and had he had not been interested in preserving them, much family and neighborhood tradition would have been lost. Seeing his tall figure moving in some far field or sitting on his side steps was a fitting detail; and when one arrived at the farm, his greeting was like a burst of fresh air.” -Out in Brecksville

213 My Dilemma, Brecksville, Ohio c. 1959 Watercolor and ink on paper Signed lower right 8 x 11 inches WOLFS GALLERY |

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Prints “Many people avoided the work because it requires positive skill in drawing and because it requires laboratory work to develop it. These were the very reasons it appealed to me.”

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Around 1912, between the time Wilcox returned from his first trip to Europe and before he began teaching, he started to experiment with etching. He taught himself, without prior instruction, this intensely technical medium, which even many Renaissance masters out sourced to an expert craftsman of the trade. These detailed etchings are finely executed.

Wilcox’s use of intaglio line and application of ink somehow simultaneously conveys his virtuoso while also linking his romantic sense of home and memories abroad.

214 Soldiers and Sailors Monument, Public Square c. 1912 Etching on paper 14.75 x 10.5 inches WOLFS GALLERY |

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215 From Rockefeller Building, Cleveland, Ohio c. 1912 Etching on paper Signed lower right 8.5 x 10.5 inches

“When I first took up etching experimentally, and without instruction, it was quite an adventure.”

216 Old Union Station c. 1912 Etching on paper Signed lower right 14 x 18.25 inches

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For Wilcox, the ability to create a print, from design to plate creation and application of ink to the paper, was more than artisanship. His affinity toward science was quite appealing through this medium.

217 R. R. Yards, Cleveland Flats, Ohio c. 1912 Etching on paper Signed lower right 8.25 x 6 inches

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218 Frogs c. 1912 Etching on paper 8.75 x 7 inches

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219 Haying, Brecksville, Ohio c. 1912 Etching on paper Signed lower right 12 x 12.5 inches

220 Italian Musicians/ Quarrymen in Brecksville c. 1915 Lithograph on paper (3 prints) Signed lower right 9.25 x 12.5 inches

221 Advertising Men c. 1912 Etching on paper Signed lower right 7.5 x 9.5 inches

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Wilcox enjoyed etching so much, that he taught an after hours class to his students, in which he was not compensated and the school only provided a press for their equipment. Wilcox believed that etching “taught him the meaning of that difficult-to-handle problem of the sky and foreground. The necessity to balance a composition in plans of depth, and to develop the texture of objects is essential to the art.”

222 Fish Tug, Lake Erie c. 1912 Etching on paper 9 x 10.5 inches

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223 Low Bridge c. 1912 Etching on paper Signed lower right 10.25 x 13.25 inches

224 Tailing In c. 1912 Etching in paper Signed lower right 8.5 x 11 inches WOLFS GALLERY |

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225 Boat in Lock, Canal in Ohio c. 1934 Silkscreen on paper 11 x 14 inches

226 Flycasters, Ohio c. 1934 Silkscreen on paper 11 x 14 inches

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227 Mountaineer on Mule Drawn Wagon Trail c. 1924 Lithograph on paper Signed lower right, numbered 2/7 lower left 11 x 14 inches 20 x 23 inches, as framed

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228 Paris Gate (Porte de Clignacourt) 1927 Etching on paper Signed lower right 7.25 x 9 inches 15 x 16.25 inches, as framed Exhibited: “A Buckeye Abroad: Frank Wilcox in Paris 1910-1926” from August 24, 2013-January 5, 2014 at The Dayton Art Institute

229 Omnibus, Paris c. 1912 Etching on paper Signed lower right 10.25 x 11 inches

230 Barge on Seine c. 1912 Etching on paper (2 prints) Signed lower right 8.5 x 10.25 inches

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“Many a time I stood in the wintry breezes drawing on a cold copper or zinc plate; but my interest in the process made me oblivious of discomfort.”

231 Rue de Seine c. 1912 Etching on paper 14 x 12 inches

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Frank Nelson Wilcox CHRONOLOGY 1887 Born October 3 in Cleveland, Ohio 1906 Graduated from Central High School, Cleveland, Ohio 1906-10 Attended the Cleveland School of Art, Cleveland, Ohio 1910-11 First Trip to Europe (England, France, Holland, Belgium, Germany and Italy) 1912 Began Experimenting with Prints 1913 Began Teaching at the Cleveland School of Art, Cleveland, Ohio 1918 Began Teaching at John Huntington Polytechnic Institute, Cleveland, Ohio 1914 Second Trip to Europe (Holland, Belgium, Germany and England) 1923-25 Trips to Maine 1926-27 Third and Final Trip to Europe (France) 1929-32 Trips to Gaspé, Canada 1930 Began Research for Ohio Indian Trails 1933 Published Ohio Indian Trails 1934 Began Research for The Ohio Canals (published posthumously in 1969) 1937-1950 Trips to the West and Southwest of the United States 1949 Published Weather Wisdom 1952-1959 Trips to the South of the United States 1953 Retired from Teaching at John Huntington Polytechnic Institute, Cleveland, Ohio 1957 Retired from Teaching at the Cleveland School of Art, Cleveland, Ohio 1959-1964 Painting of “Little-Big Watercolors” 1964 Died April 17 in Cleveland, Ohio AWARDS The Cleveland Art Association 1919 1920 1921

Bronze Medal for Etching (Penton Medal) Silver Medal for Overall Excellence (Penton Medal) Bronze Medal for Industrial Oil Painting (Penton Medal)

The Cleveland Museum of Art May Shows 1919 1919 1919 1920 1920 1920 1920 1920 1921 1921 1922 1922 1922 1923 1924 1924 1924 1925 1926 163

1st Prize for Decorative Painting 1st Prize for Etching 2nd Prize for Industrial Painting 1st Prize in Landscape Oil Painting 1st Prize in Industrial Oil Painting 1st Prize in Miscellaneous Oil Painting 1st Prize in Watercolor 1st Prize in Etching 1st Prize in Industrial Oil Painting 2nd Prize in Landscape Oil Painting 1st Prize in Oil Painting Bronze Medal for Oil Painting and Landscapes (Penton Medal) Bronze Medal for Industrial Oil Painting (Penton Medal) 1st Prize in Watercolor 1st Prize in Etching 3rd Prize in Watercolor 3rd Prize in Illustration 1st Prize in Oil Landscape Painting 1st Prize in Oil Landscape Painting

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1927 1927 1928 1929 1929 1930 1932

1st Prize in Miscellaneous Oil Painting 1st Prize in Oil Painting 1st Prize in Watercolor 1st Prize in Watercolor 1st Prize in Oil Landscape Painting Honorable Mention in Watercolor 1st Prize in Watercolor

1952 Roberta Holden Bole Special Faculty Award for Travel and Study 1952 Cleveland Plain Dealer Award for Art in Cleveland 1952 Special Merit Award of American Watercolor Society PUBLICATIONS Ohio Indian Trails, 1933 Weather Wisdom, 1949 The Ohio Canals, 1969 (published posthumously) HONORARY DEGREES 1957 Doctor of Science in Education, The College of Immaculate Conception, Kansas City, Missouri 1958 Doctor of Humane Letters, Baldwin-Wallace College, Berea, Ohio MEMBERSHIPS Member, American Watercolor Society, New York City, New York Member, Philadelphia Watercolor Club, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Member, Ohio Watercolor Society Member, Rowfant Club of Cleveland, Cleveland, Ohio Founder-Member, Former President, Cleveland Society of Artists Honorary Member, Artists and Craftsmen’s Association of Cleveland PUBLIC COLLECTIONS AND MUSEUMS Akron Art Museum, Akron, Ohio Baldwin-Wallace College, Berea, Ohio Brecksville City Hall, Brecksville, Ohio Brecksville Congregational Church, Brecksville, Ohio Brecksville Public Library, Brecksville, Ohio Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio Canton Museum of Art, Canton, Ohio Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, Ohio Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland Museum of Natural History, Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland Public School Collection, Cleveland, Ohio Collection of Alumni Association of Cleveland Institute of Art, Cleveland, Ohio Ohioana Library, Columbus, Ohio Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego, California Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, Ohio

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SELECTED EXHIBITIONS 1911 Cleveland Society of Artists, Cleveland, Ohio Spring Salon, Paris, France William Taylor Galleries, Cleveland, Ohio (first solo exhibition) 1914 Korner & Wood Gallery, Cleveland, Ohio (solo exhibition) 1919-1960 Annual May Shows, Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio 1929 International Exhibition of Watercolors by Americans, Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio 1933 Exhibition of Ohio Art, Museum of Modern Art, New York City, New York 1936 Korner & Wood Gallery, Cleveland, Ohio (solo exhibition) Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio (solo exhibition) 1937 Exhibition of Paintings and Prints by Cleveland Artists, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City, New York 1939 World’s Fair Exhibition, New York City, New York 1950 Baldwin-Wallace College, Berea, Ohio (solo exhibition) Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 1952 Retrospective Exhibition, Cleveland Institute of Art, Cleveland, Ohio 1952-1959 (solo exhibitions) Sketch Books of Frank N Wilcox at Stones Grill Gallery Women’s City Club of Cleveland, Cleveland, Ohio Mid Day Club of Cleveland, Cleveland, Ohio Rowfant Club, Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland Play House, Cleveland, Ohio

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1959 -1964 Cleveland Society of Artists, Cleveland, Ohio (solo exhibition) Ohio Watercolor Society, Willoughby, Ohio Chicago Art Institute, Chicago, Illinois University of Rochester, Rochester, New York Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York 1965 Memorial Exhibition, American Watercolor Society, New York City, New York 1966 Memorial Exhibition, Baldwin-Wallace College, Berea, Ohio 1967 Parma Center Gallery, Parma, Ohio Pageant of Ohio Painters at Butler Museum of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio 1968 Intown Club of Cleveland, Cleveland, Ohio (solo exhibition) Women’s City Club of Cleveland, Cleveland, Ohio (solo exhibition) 1969 Willoughby Fine Arts Association, Willoughby, Ohio (solo exhibition) Retrospective Exhibition, Butler Museum of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio 1975 -1976 Cleveland Museum of Natural History, Cleveland, Ohio 1988 Estate Exhibition, Northeast Ohio Art Museum 2013 A Buckeye Abroad: Frank Wilcox in Paris 1910-1926, Dayton Art Institute, Dayton, Ohio 2015 Frank N. Wilcox: Artist as Historian, Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, Ohio 2019 The Dean: Frank Nelson Wilcox (1887-1964), WOLFS, Cleveland, Ohio

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Acknowledgements The entirety of this exhibition and catalog would not have been possible without the hard work and dedication of: Douglas Hughes, grandson and caretaker of the Frank Nelson Wilcox estate Professor Henry Adams, Ruth Coulter Heede Professor of Art History at Case Western Reserve University Dr. Marianne Berardi Epstein Design Partners, Inc. Master Printing ICA Art Conservation Cerulean Conservation, LLC Art Etc. Walken Frame & Art Zivko Radenkov WOLFS staff: Megan Arner, Lauren Lovings-Gomez, and Austin Turner To all those, anonymous and otherwise, who have selflessly contributed to this worthy endeavor — thank you.

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Self-Portrait Studies c. 1940 Graphite on paper 12 x 18 inches

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