14 Facts About Frances Gearhart

Frances Gearhart was an American printmaker and watercolorist known for her boldly drawn and colored woodcut and linocut prints of American landscapes.

Frances Hammell Gearhart was born January 4,1869, in Sagetown, Illinois.

Frances Gearhart moved to California in 1888 and began studying at the State Normal School at Los Angeles the following year.

Frances Gearhart graduated in 1891 and thereafter supported herself for several years teaching English at the high school level.

In one of her earliest public displays in Los Angeles, which was a joint exhibit in 1909 with other high school teachers, Frances contributed a collection of "striking water color scenes".

Frances Gearhart worked in a traditional Japanese relief-printing method, creating a separate block for each color in the final print, with individual prints requiring up to 8 separate blocks.

Frances Gearhart frequently included paths, roads, and waterways to lead the viewer into the image and made use of sentinel trees to anchor her compositions.

Frances Gearhart became an exhibiting member of the San Francisco-based California Society of Etchers and for the Society's Eighth Annual Exhibition of 1919 she had five of her color prints accepted by the jury for display.

Frances Gearhart became a member of the Print Makers Society of California in 1919 and was one of the organization's leaders during its formative years.

Frances Gearhart frequently summered and sketched on the Monterey Peninsula and at the Carmel Annual in 1921 five of her block prints attracted much attention.

Frances Gearhart later joined the Prairie Print Makers and the American Federation of the Arts as well.

Frances Gearhart's work is in the collection of numerous museums and art institutions.

In June 1926 Frances Gearhart lectured and staged a solo show of her linoleum block prints at the UCLA Art Gallery.

Frances Gearhart's output declined after 1940 as her eyesight failed, and she died in Pasadena on April 4,1958.