Frank N. Wilcox

Frank N. Wilcox
Frank N. Wilcox 1 photographic print: b&w; 13 x 14 cm. Courtesy of the Frank N. Wilcox papers, 1906-1976, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Born	October 3, 1887 Cleveland, Ohio
Died	April 17, 1964 (1964-04-18) (aged 76) Cleveland, Ohio
Education	Cleveland School of Art, 1906-1910, taught 1913-1953
Known for	Watercolor Painting, Drawing, Printmaking

Frank Nelson Wilcox (October 3, 1887 – April 17, 1964) was a modernist American artist and a master of watercolor. Wilcox is described as the "Dean of Cleveland School painters," though some sources give this appellation to Henry Keller or Frederick Gottwald.

Frank Nelson Wilcox, Jr. was born on October 3, 1887 to Frank Nelson Wilcox and Jessie Fremont Snow Wilcox at 61 Linwood Street in Cleveland, Ohio. His father, a prominent lawyer, died at home in 1904 shortly before Wilcox' 17th birthday. His brother, lawyer and publisher Owen N. Wilcox, was president of the Gates Legal Publishing Company or The Gates Press. His sister Ruth Wilcox was a respected librarian.

In 1906 Wilcox enrolled from the Cleveland School of Art under the tutelage of Henry Keller, Louis Rorimer, and Frederick Gottwald. He also attended Keller's Berlin Heights summer school from 1909. After graduating in 1910, Wilcox traveled and studied in Europe, spending a year at Académie Colarossi where he was influenced by French impressionism. He joined the Cleveland School of Art faculty in 1913. Among his students were Lawrence Edwin Blazey, Carl Gaertner, Paul Travis, and Charles E. Burchfield. Around this time Wilcox became associated with Cowan Pottery.

In 1916 Wilcox married fellow artist Florence Bard, and they spent most of their honeymoon painting in Berlin Heights with Keller. They had one daughter, Mary. In 1918 he joined the Cleveland Society of Artists, a conservative counter to the Bohemian Kokoon Arts Club, and would later serve as its president. He also began teaching night school at the John Huntington Polytechnic Institute at this time, and taught briefly at Baldwin-Wallace College.