FRANCIS, Frank

1930 - 2013

Frank Antony Francis was born at Edmonton, London on 10 March 1930, son of Albert George Francis (13 February 1902-6 January 1977), a commercial designer, and his wife Alice Rosetta née Wright (23 November 1901-1995), who married at Edmonton in 1929, Albert died at 10 Valance Avenue, London E.4 and Alice at Sudbury, Suffolk. In 1939, Frank and his mother were living at Ketts Oak Estate, Hethersett, Norfolk, probably evacuees, the home of cowman George MacKrell and his family, his father was living at 131 Charlton Road, Edmonton with the Wright family. Frank married at Wood Green, London in 1958, Juliet W. Stacey (born 1932) and in 2000 were living at Tinkers Cottage, The Street, Little Waldingfield, Sudbury, Suffolk. Frank was a children's book writer and illustrator until, in the early 1980s, he commenced exhibiting his paintings of visionary rural life and in 1991 began exhibiting at the Royal Academy. An artist and a commentator on landscape, man and technology, his pictures, painted in his distinctive style, were inspired by the East Anglian landscape and his later works reflect his views on man’s relationship with the environment and technology. In the 1990s he was represented by the Rona Gallery in London and a retrospective exhibition was held at the Edmund Gallery, Angel Hill, Bury St Edmund's in 2015. Frank Antony Francis died at Little Waldingfield on 19 May 2013 leaving a widow and two children. His books include 'The Magic Wallpaper' (1970) 'Natasha's New Doll' (1973); 'Timitoto's New Adventure' and two catalogues 'Printing and the Mind of Man' (1963), Treasures of the British Museum and he illustrated Peggy Blakeley's 'Bangalore Man' and 'Cherry Stones'; Clement Freud's 'Grimble' (1968) and Joyce Wood's 'Grandmother Lucy and her Hats' (1971) and others.

Royal Academy Exhibits
from Tinker's Cottage, Little Waldingfield, Suffolk
1991 1006 Sad Girl
1993 1680 Forgiveness
1996 1049 The Red Coat
1997 16 Messenger of Hope
1998 4 The Violinist
         5 Flight of Love
2000 378 In the Time of God
         1043 George, Georgina, and the Dragon of Technology

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Works by This Artist