Frances Brundage (1854–1937)
She was born as Frances Isabelle Lockwood to Rembrandt Lockwood and Sarah Ursula Despeaux. Her father was an architect, a portraitist, a miniaturist, a wood engraver, and a painter of church murals. He was also her first art teacher and thanks to Frances't talent combined with achieved skills she became the main provider of the family when Rembrandt Lockwood left the family at the tender age of only 17 years.
Her first sold work was an illustration of the poem written by Louisa May Alcott to the writer. Details of this deal are unclear and it's possible it never really happened. She was almost 30 years old when she married William Tyson Brundage whose surname she took and became famous by. They collaborated on many projects, especially book illustrations. Frances and William got one child, a daughter who died before she reached a year and a half of age.
They never got another child and some believe Frances' portraits of somehow ethereal children with cherub overall look (hazy eyes, curly hair, and rosy cheeks) echoed her tragic personal experience of motherhood. At the end of the 19th century and especially at the beginning of the 20th century Brundage children became one of the most recognizable characters in picture postcards sold in millions all over the world.
Her style evolved through the years. Cute, adorable kids became more whimsy in the 1920s, exaggerating ethnic background stereotypical characteristics which would be marked as a bit racist today. Yet, in the right context, we should add she was never offensive and believed in friendship and love among people of all origins.
She started working for Louis Prang Co. in the 1890s and later made pictures for Taber-Prang Art Co (after the merger of the companies), Raphael Tuck, W. Hagelberg, Sam Gabriel, Saalfied, Stecher, DeWolfe, Fisk and Co., Fred A. Stokes, Charles E. Graham and Co, E. P. Dutton, Ernest Nister, Hayes Co, and others. Frances Brundage's work is often signed but in most cases unsigned, which sometimes makes them hard to recognize as hers.
She was born as Frances Isabelle Lockwood to Rembrandt Lockwood and Sarah Ursula Despeaux. Her father was an architect, a portraitist, a miniaturist, a wood engraver, and a painter of church murals. He was also her first art teacher and thanks to Frances't talent combined with achieved skills she became the main provider of the family when Rembrandt Lockwood left the family at the tender age of only 17 years.
Her first sold work was an illustration of the poem written by Louisa May Alcott to the writer. Details of this deal are unclear and it's possible it never really happened. She was almost 30 years old when she married William Tyson Brundage whose surname she took and became famous by. They collaborated on many projects, especially book illustrations. Frances and William got one child, a daughter who died before she reached a year and a half of age.
They never got another child and some believe Frances' portraits of somehow ethereal children with cherub overall look (hazy eyes, curly hair, and rosy cheeks) echoed her tragic personal experience of motherhood. At the end of the 19th century and especially at the beginning of the 20th century Brundage children became one of the most recognizable characters in picture postcards sold in millions all over the world.
Her style evolved through the years. Cute, adorable kids became more whimsy in the 1920s, exaggerating ethnic background stereotypical characteristics which would be marked as a bit racist today. Yet, in the right context, we should add she was never offensive and believed in friendship and love among people of all origins.
She started working for Louis Prang Co. in the 1890s and later made pictures for Taber-Prang Art Co (after the merger of the companies), Raphael Tuck, W. Hagelberg, Sam Gabriel, Saalfied, Stecher, DeWolfe, Fisk and Co., Fred A. Stokes, Charles E. Graham and Co, E. P. Dutton, Ernest Nister, Hayes Co, and others. Frances Brundage's work is often signed but in most cases unsigned, which sometimes makes them hard to recognize as hers.
Apart from postcards, by which Mrs. Brundage is best known today, she also designed calendars, clothes for dolls, illustrated books (around two hundred overall!), and her work often appeared in different media (some illustrations became postcards and vice-versa, etc.).
It's interesting to note that her major breakthrough came with commissions for English Raphael Tuck and German W. Hagelberg who aimed at the US market, competing with works by Maud Humphrey and Ellen Clapsaddle. It looks the success is sometimes easier to succeed if you come from abroad, no matter the market you are working for.
If we already compare Mrs. Brundage with her contemporaries, we should also mention Kate Greenaway. Both illustrators specialized in images of a happy childhood and were known for dressing their characters in magnificent attires. While Greenaway's designs were fictional yet so persuasive mothers demanded exactly the same clothes for their kids until such dresses were made for the market, Brundage stayed realistic all her career. Portraits of the kids were different as well with Brundage always emphasizing pinkish and reddish cheeks. And there was a different printing process of course.
Illustrations made by Kate Greenaway were printed by advanced complex chromoxylography technique, publishers used older and less demanding chromolithography by Frances Brundage's work.
William Tyson Brundage died in 1923 and Frances died in 1937. Her work is highly collectible, depending on condition, with books reaching several hundred and with so-called die-hard cards several thousand dollars.
It's interesting to note that her major breakthrough came with commissions for English Raphael Tuck and German W. Hagelberg who aimed at the US market, competing with works by Maud Humphrey and Ellen Clapsaddle. It looks the success is sometimes easier to succeed if you come from abroad, no matter the market you are working for.
If we already compare Mrs. Brundage with her contemporaries, we should also mention Kate Greenaway. Both illustrators specialized in images of a happy childhood and were known for dressing their characters in magnificent attires. While Greenaway's designs were fictional yet so persuasive mothers demanded exactly the same clothes for their kids until such dresses were made for the market, Brundage stayed realistic all her career. Portraits of the kids were different as well with Brundage always emphasizing pinkish and reddish cheeks. And there was a different printing process of course.
Illustrations made by Kate Greenaway were printed by advanced complex chromoxylography technique, publishers used older and less demanding chromolithography by Frances Brundage's work.
William Tyson Brundage died in 1923 and Frances died in 1937. Her work is highly collectible, depending on condition, with books reaching several hundred and with so-called die-hard cards several thousand dollars.