Frank W. Benson

“I follow the light; where it comes from, where it goes.”

Frank W. Benson is best known for his impressionist “plein-air” paintings. He was focused on capturing light. An American artist from Salem, Massachusetts, Benson is known for his realistic portraits, American Impressionist paintings, watercolors and etchings.

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Painter

Frank W. Benson is best known for his impressionist
“plein-air” or outdoor paintings. He was focused on capturing light. He once said, “I follow the light; where it comes from, where it goes.”

Etcher

Benson, one of the best printmakers of the 20th century, is credited with making wildlife prints a distinct genre. “The whole process from the bare plate to the finished print is full of fascinating possibilities and possible failures.”

Lithographer

Perhaps his rarest medium. He used his imagination, coupling it with personal experience and solid principals of composition—what he called “design”—to convey his birds and sportsmen with such great appeal.

“Frank Benson painted some of the most beautiful pictures ever executed by an American artist. They are images alive with reflections of youth and optimism, projecting a way of life at once innocent and idealized and yet resonant with a sense of certain, selective realities of contemporary times.”


William H. Gerdts, Art Historian

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