Frances Gearhart (1869-1958)
We are especially interested in buying artwork by Frances Gearhart.
Biography
Frances Gearhart was born in Gladstone, Illinois on January 4, 1869. She worked as a painter, watercolorist and printmaker. Her colored wood block prints are highly prized by print collectors. Gearhart was self-taught except for a few lessons from Henry Rankin Poor and Charles H. Woodbury. After settling in Pasadena in 1888, she studied at the State Normal School (now UCLA). Gearhart taught English history at Los Angeles High School for many years.
She painted watercolors until about 1916 and then found her forte in woodcuts. Her studio at 18 West California Street in Pasadena was headquarters for the Printmakers Society of California. Her failing eyesight in the 1940s curtailed her artistic output. She died in Pasadena on April 6, 1958.