25 Facts About Francis Quirk

Francis Joseph Quirk was an American artist, educator, museum curator, and TV personality.

Francis Quirk is best known for his paintings of Edgar Lee Masters and Carl Sandburg, as well as his affiliation with Lehigh University as a professor and curator.

Francis Quirk was born on June 3,1907, in Pawtucket, Rhode Island.

Francis Quirk completed his certificate in 1929 and his post graduate work in 1930.

In 1932, Francis Quirk successfully competed for a place at the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation that allowed him to spend three months at Tiffany's estate at Laurelton Hall in Cold Spring Harbor on Long Island.

Also in 1932, Francis Quirk exhibited at the Provincetown Art Association a painting of Fred Fischer's Place.

Francis Quirk won the Juror's Prize at the Providence Art Club's Annual Exhibition with his painting of Scott Adams III.

In 1935, Francis Quirk began a 15-year relationship with the Ogontz School for Young Ladies.

Francis Quirk was a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, was Supervisor of Art in Cranston, RI public school system, founded the Cranston School of Creative Arts and exhibited her paintings in Maine.

Francis Quirk painted Carl Sandburg at the request of Abby Sutherland Brown.

In 1940, Francis Quirk exhibited a painting of him and his wife attending a concert at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art.

Towards the end of Francis Quirk's tenure at Ogontz he was a Professor of Contemporary Perspective at Philadelphia's Hussian School of Art.

Francis Quirk taught there from 1948 to 1950, shortly after the school's founding by John Hussian in 1946 with the support of principals at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Francis Quirk established lending relationships with the Ranger Fund, National Academy of Design and the Smithsonian Institution.

Francis Quirk ran numerous exhibitions and established a program for exhibiting student art.

Technically, Francis Quirk was an excellent draftsman who worked in a variety of medium and styles.

Francis Quirk experimented in cubism, but largely remained true to a realistic style of portraiture and marine subjects.

Francis Quirk named the Pine Drive home Peterspen and was active in the Mountain Club community teaching art classes.

Francis Quirk would spend two years on special assignment in Switzerland from 1959 to 1961.

Francis Quirk retired from teaching in 1969 but remained affiliated with the school as professor emeritus through 1972 and had a solo show there in 1973.

Francis Quirk retired to Peterspen North, his home in the Kinney Shores area of Saco, Maine.

Francis Quirk had spent many summers there and served as President of the Kinney Shores Association.

Francis Quirk exhibited his work at the Old Orchard Art Association where he had been honored with a prize in 1962 and sold his work through local galleries.

Francis Quirk died on February 5,1974, in the National Medical Care center in Portland Maine.

Francis Quirk was buried in the Laurel Hill Cemetery in Saco, Maine.