Frances Brundage | |
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Brundage with Marian MacDowell and Arthur Nevin in 1917
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Born |
Frances Isabelle Lockwood 1854 Newark, New Jersey |
Died | March 28, 1937 |
Residence |
Washington, D.C. Cape Ann, Massachusetts Brooklyn, New York |
Nationality | American |
Citizenship | American |
Education | Art education received from her father, Rembrandt Lockwood |
Occupation | Illustrator |
Years active | ca. 1890–1937 |
Employer | Various publishers: Raphael Tuck & Son; Samuel Gabriel Company; Saalfield |
Known for | Illustrations depicting children |
Notable work | Children's books and ephemera such as postcards, advertising cards, paper dolls, etc. |
Spouse(s) | William Tyson Brundage (1849–1923), married 1886 |
Children | Mary Frances Brundage (died 1891 at 17 months) |
Parent(s) | Rembrandt Lockwood and Sarah Ursula Despeaux |
Signature | |
Frances Isabelle Lockwood Brundage (1854–1937) was an American illustrator best known for her depictions of attractive and endearing children on postcards, valentines, calendars, and other ephemera published by Raphael Tuck & Sons, Samuel Gabriel Company, and Saalfield Publishing. She received an education in art at an early age from her father, Rembrandt Lockwood. Her professional career in illustration began at seventeen when her father abandoned his family and she was forced to seek a livelihood.
In addition to ephemera, Brundage illustrated children's classics such as the novels of Louisa May Alcott, Johanna Spyri, and Robert Louis Stevenson, and traditional literary collections such as The Arabian Nights and the stories of King Arthur and Robin Hood. She was a prolific artist, and, in her late 60s, was producing as many as twenty books annually. Her work is highly collectible.
Brundage was born Frances Isabelle Lockwood on June 28, 1854 in Newark, New Jersey, to Rembrandt Lockwood and Sarah Ursula Despeaux. Her father was an architect, a wood engraver, and an artist who painted church murals, portraits, and miniatures. Brundage received her art education from her father, and, at the age of seventeen, was forced to earn a living from her art after Lockwood abandoned his family.
She sold her first professional work – a sketch illustrating a poem by Louisa May Alcott – to the author. She illustrated books and ephemera such as paper dolls, postcards, valentines, prints, trade cards, and calendars. Her book illustrations were sometimes published as postcards.
In 1886, she married the artist, William Tyson Brundage, and gave birth to one child, Mary Frances Brundage, who died in 1891 aged 17 months. The Brundages resided in Washington, D.C., summered at Cape Ann, Massachusetts, and, in later years, moved to Brooklyn, New York. They occasionally worked jointly on projects.