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This article is from the Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, 6 volumes, edited by William S. Powell. Copyright ©1979-1996 by the University of North Carolina Press. Used by permission of the publisher. For personal use and not for further distribution. Please submit permission requests for other use directly to the publisher.

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London, Frank Marsden

by William S. Powell, 1991

18 Apr. 1876–10 Mar. 1945

A photograph of Frank Marsden London from the 1897 University of North Carolina yearbook. Image from the Internet Archive.Frank Marsden London, artist, was born in Pittsboro, the son of William Lord and Caroline Haughton London. He attended The University of North Carolina between 1893 and 1895 and afterwards studied art in New York with Arthur Dow and William M. Chase. Early in his career he designed stained glass and is represented by windows in the Belmont Chapel of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York, the Church of the Good Shepherd in Raleigh, and St. Bartholomew's Church in Pittsboro, as well as in churches elsewhere in the United States.

In the 1920s London turned entirely to painting, specializing in still life described as being in the style of the romantic old Dutch painters. Moving to Paris in 1926, he remained for two years before returning to New York where he spent the rest of his life except for extended stays in England, Italy, and Spain. While in France he was awarded the Diplôme d'Honneur at the International Exposition of Beaux Arts at Bordeaux. His work was exhibited in Paris, New York, Chapel Hill, Raleigh, and elsewhere, and he was associated with several galleries, notably the Montross Galleries. He was a member of the Woodstock Art Association and the Whitney Studio Club and belonged to the Federation of Modern Painters and Sculptors.

London married Augusta Johnson and they were the parents of Caroline Haughton, who died young, and F. Marsden, Jr.

References:

Chapel Hill Daily Tar Heel, 30 Nov. 1948.

Ola Maie Foushee, Art in North Carolina (1972).

Frank London (catalogue of a 1967 exhibition at The Contemporaries, a New York gallery).

Frank London: A Retrospective Showing of His Paintings (1948).

New York Journal and American, 8 Jan. 1939.

New York Post and New York World-Telegram, 7 Jan. 1939.

New York Times, 11 Mar. 1945.

North Carolina Museum of Art, Calendar of North Carolina Art Events 1 (December 1957).

Raleigh News and Observer, 1 Dec. 1948, 17 Jan. 1949, 29 Jan. 1967.

Additional Resources:

Frank Marsden London printed materials, 1925-1974. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/frank-marsden-london-printed-materials-7906 (accessed November 25, 2013).

Vatter, Fred J., Jr. "Frank Marsden London was Pittsboro’s Talented Artist." Chatham County Line. October 2011. 6. http://chathamcountyline.org/pdfs/CCL.oct11.web6.pdf (accessed November 25, 2013).

"London, Frank Marsden 1876–1945." The Johnson Collection, Spartanburg, S.C. http://thejohnsoncollection.org/frank-marsden-london/ (accessed November 25, 2013).

Image Credits:

"North Carolina Xi Chapter (Sigma Alpha Epsilon)." Photograph. The Hellenian. [Chapel Hill, N.C.] 1897. 72. https://archive.org/stream/hellenianserial1897univ#page/n85/mode/2up/ (accessed November 25, 2013).

Subjects: 
Artists
Biographies
Authors: 
Powell, William S.
Origin - location: 
Pittsboro
From: 
Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, University of North Carolina Press.

1 January 1991 | Powell, William S.