 R. Atkinson Fox is primarily known as Robert Atkinson Fox
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Biography from AskART:
| Robert Atkinson Fox was a Philadelphia artist who produced more than
1000 works of art. From 1900 until his death, millions of the artist's
color photolithographic reproductions prints were consumed by the
American middle-class.
Fox was born in Toronto, Canada, in
1860, but immigrated to the United States somewhere between 1885 and
1890. A prolific painter, he worked as an artist both in Toronto and in
the United States and appears to have enjoyed great commercial success
during his lifetime. He worked for various publishers, including Brown
and Bigelow of St. Paul, Minnesota, Edward Gross & Co. of New York,
Master Art Publishers, Chicago, The Red Wing Advertising Company, and
the Thomas D. Murphy Co. of Red Oak, Iowa among others.
Fox
studied in Canada and Europe prior to arriving in America. He was the
pupil of J W Bridgeman at the Ontario Society of Artists in Toronto. He
exhibited at the Philadelphia Art Club in 1898. His work appeared as
art prints, calendars, advertising pieces, ink blotters, candy,
handkerchief and jewelry boxes, magazine covers, children's books,
newspaper inserts, postcards, puzzles, thermometers, and numerous other
forms.
Fox was a generalist. He could paint basically any
assignment given to him by a publisher, he frequently painted from
memory, aided by sketches, sometimes finishing a painting in a day's
time. Many of his original paintings were oil on canvas. His subjects
included landscapes, probably the most collectable today, to enchanted
gardens, country-sides, cottages, animals and pets (was a leading
painter of cows, but also painted horses, dogs, sheep, bears and
foxes). His diverse subject matter also includes women, Indians and
Indian maidens, the Wild West, historical and contemporary themes,
hunting and fishing scenes, adventure, ships, and historic figures such
as Washington, Lafayette, Franklin and Theodore Roosevelt.
Although
many of his prints bear the signature R. Atkinson Fox, many unsigned
and untitled exist, due to the cropping of the print when framing it.
Fox used at least 26 known pseudonyms, and perhaps 18 more were used.
Fox
married Anna Gaffney in 1903. They lived in New Jersey until about
1924, when he moved his family to Chicago and continued his work until
his death in 1935 at the age of 74. Five of his eight children still
survive and many of his paintings are still in their hands, as well as
in private collections.
R. Atkinson Fox has been called a
"Parrish imitator" because of the similarities of many of his popular
works to illustrator Maxfield Parrish. Yet many other artists of the
time also attempted to capitalize to meet the needs of the public.
However, few other artists of this time went on to provide the volume
of work and diversity of subject matter as R. Atkinson Fox.
Relatively little was known about the early 20th Century artist Robert Atkinson Fox until the early 1980's.
Source:
Donna Hinton, www.myantiquemall.com
Michael Ivankovich "Popular Early 20th c. Prints: R. Atkinson Fox... The "Fox Hunt" Continues"
Peter Hastings Falk, Editor, Who Was Who in American Art
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| ** If you discover credit omissions or have additional information to add, please let us know at registrar@AskART.com. |
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