Frank Dean
An Evening Drink
Oil on canvas, signed and dated ‘1894’ bottom left
Image size: 29 1/2 x 49 1/2 inches (75 x 145.75 cm)
Handmade gilt frame
Frank Dean
Dean was born in Headingly, near Leeds, in 1865. He was a pupil of A Legros (1837-1911) at the Slade School of Art, London, from 1880 to 1882. He then went and studied in Paris until 1886 under Jules Joseph Lefebvre (1836-1911) and Gustave Boulanger (1824-1888).
In 1887 he settled in his birthplace of Headlingly. He exhibited at the Athenaeum in 1882, and at the Royal Academy in 1887 with an impressionistic painting called ‘A Tidal River’. He continued to exhibit English impressionistic landscapes until 1907.
After repeated study journeys through Egypt, he produced numerous brilliant oil, watercolour and pastel studies of Egypt and the Sudan, mainly landscapes, street scenes and native studies. Amongst them were ‘A Son of the Sudan‘ 1895, ‘Crossing the Desert‘ 1900 and ‘Door of a Mosque at Cairo‘ 1905. He then travelled to India where he continued to paint prolifically, exhibiting the results in 1910 and 1911.
Literature
A Graves ‘Dictionary of Artists’
S Fisher ‘Dictionary of Watercolour Painters’
Royal Academy Catalogue 1905
The Year’s Art 1913, p491
Museums
Leeds Art Gallery, Leeds Museums and Galleries
