Frances Burr
{{short description|American artist }}
{{Hatnote|This article is about the American artist born in 1890; for the British artist born in 1729 with a similar name, see Frances Reynolds; for the American suffragist born in 1831, see Frances Ellen Burr.}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Frances Burr
| image = FrancesBurrEly1922.png
| alt = A young white woman with bobbed dark hair, wearing a round white collar in her passport photo
| caption = Frances Burr Ely, from her 1922 passport application
| birth_name =
| birth_date = November 24, 1890
| birth_place = Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
| death_date = March 28, 1974 (aged 83)
| death_place = Santa Fe, New Mexico, U.S.
| other_names = Frances Burr Ely, Frances Burr Reynolds
| occupation = Artist, draughtsman, astronomer, athlete, pilot
| years_active =
| known_for =
| notable_works =
| spouse(s) =
| relatives =
}}
Frances Burr Ely Reynolds (November 24, 1890 – March 28, 1974) was an American artist, known for her fantasy medieval bas-relief murals in gesso. Burr made navigation and target charts for the American military during World War II, and after the war made astronomical charts. She was also a licensed pilot, a skier and a diver.
Early life and education
Burr was born in Boston,Frances Burr Ely's application for a United States passport, dated June 9, 1922, via Ancestry. and raised in Lawrence, Nassau County, New York, the daughter of Winthrop Motley Burr Sr. and Frances Page Burr. Her father was a member of the governing committee of the New York Stock Exchange, and her mother was a clubwoman on Long Island.[https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1929/05/07/95944365.html?pageNumber=29 "Winthrop Burr Dies Suddenly at 88"] The New York Times (May 7, 1929), 29.{{Cite news |date=January 16, 1939 |title=Mrs Winthrop Burr; Widow of Governor of Exchange a Founder of Colony Club |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1939/01/16/91545290.html?pageNumber=15 |work=The New York Times |pages=15}} Her uncle was Massachusetts politician and banker Isaac Tucker Burr Jr.{{Cite web |title=History |url=https://burrestate.com/history |access-date=2024-09-29 |website=The Burr Estate Condominium Association}} Both of her brothers died in 1923.{{Cite news |date=1923-10-02 |title=Winthrop Burr Jr. Killed in Accident at Wetmore, Col. |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/brooklyn-eagle-winthrop-burr-jr-killed/156247166/ |access-date=2024-09-29 |work=Brooklyn Eagle |pages=22 |via=Newspapers.com}} She studied with the Art Students League of New York, and with Charles Webster Hawthorne.
Career
= Murals and other art =
After a trip to Italy in 1922,{{Cite news |last=Kyle |first=Elisabeth |date=1929-05-28 |title=Wall Paintings Revived by Decorators |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-daily-telegraph-wall-paintings-reviv/156240573/ |access-date=2024-09-29 |work=The Daily Telegraph |pages=7 |via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite news |date=1925-10-03 |title=Artist Uses Gesso Work on Wall Panels |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-pantagraph-artist-uses-gesso-work-on/156240212/ |access-date=2024-09-29 |work=The Pantagraph |pages=12 |via=Newspapers.com}} Burr painted detailed murals in gesso, featuring fantasy medieval scenes, on the walls of her own home. She exhibited at the Ehrich Galleries in Brooklyn in 1924.{{Cite news |date=1924-01-06 |title=Impressions and Notes of the Galleries |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/brooklyn-eagle-impressions-and-notes-of/156232927/ |access-date=2024-09-29 |work=Brooklyn Eagle |pages=24 |via=Newspapers.com}} Her "carved and painted panels" titled "The Battle of Great Strokes" and "Upon Adventure Embarked" were also part of the Brooklyn Art Museum in 1926 as part of the National Association of Women Painters and Sculptors show.Morrow, Anne. [https://books.google.com/books?id=holLAAAAYAAJ&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=Florence%20Buck&pg=RA5-PA13#v=snippet&q=Gesso&f=false "Dreams in Gold and Gesso; The Story of a Woman Artist Who Makes Old Romances Come True"] The Woman Citizen 10(June 1926): 13, 36. Her work was exhibited at the Herron Art Institute in Indianapolis and at the Minneapolis Institute of Art in 1927.{{Cite news |date=1927-02-06 |title=Colored Modeling in Low Relive is Method of Panels |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-minneapolis-journal-colored-modeling/156236837/ |access-date=2024-09-29 |work=The Minneapolis Journal |pages=18 |via=Newspapers.com}} An Indiana reviewer found her work "intensely interesting" and "well-thought-out" but thought the overall effect like that of "an assemblage of toys grouped upon a flat surface".{{Cite news |last=Morehouse |first=Lucille E. |date=1927-07-10 |title=Fraces Burr Mural Work at Herron Art Institute |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-indianapolis-star-fraces-burr-mural/156229594/ |access-date=2024-09-29 |work=The Indianapolis Star |pages=27 |via=Newspapers.com}} She spoke about her work in Honolulu in 1928.{{Cite news |date=1928-09-08 |title=Of Mural Decorations |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/honolulu-star-bulletin-of-mural-decorati/156230309/ |access-date=2024-09-29 |work=Honolulu Star-Bulletin |pages=32 |via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite news |date=1928-09-09 |title=Mrs. Frances Burr to Talk on Gesso at Arts Academy |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/honolulu-star-advertiser-mrs-frances-bu/156239863/ |access-date=2024-09-29 |work=Honolulu Star-Advertiser |pages=12 |via=Newspapers.com}} She painted herself and her son into one of the murals, as onlookers at a battlefield.{{Cite news |date=October 7, 1948 |title=Frances Burr to Exhibit Gesso Murals |url=https://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=stn19481007-01.1.6&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN---------- |work=The Smithtown News |pages=6, 12 |via=NYS Historic Newspapers}}
Burr's "The Battle of Hastings" panel was reproduced as a full-page feature in the Chicago Tribune in 1932.{{Cite news |date=1932-01-24 |title=The Battle of Hastings |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/chicago-tribune-the-battle-of-hastings/156240851/ |access-date=2024-09-29 |work=Chicago Tribune |pages=79 |via=Newspazpers.com}} Also in 1932, one of her paintings was the cover illustration of Country Life magazine.{{Citation |last=Burr |first=Frances |title=Country Life |date=May 1932 |pages=cover |url=https://archive.org/details/CountryLife193205 |access-date=2024-09-29}} In 1948 and 1949, her panels were exhibited at Suffolk Museum in Stony Brook.{{Cite news |date=1948-10-04 |title=Show Gesso Murals at Stony Brook |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/newsday-suffolk-edition-show-gesso-mur/156239934/ |access-date=2024-09-29 |work=Newsday (Suffolk Edition) |pages=7 |via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite news |date=1949-03-22 |title=Exhibit Religious Panel at Museum |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/newsday-suffolk-edition-exhibit-religi/156241225/ |access-date=2024-09-29 |work=Newsday (Suffolk Edition) |pages=11 |via=Newspapers.com}} In 1955, there was an exhibit of her portraits at Suffolk Museum.{{Cite news |date=June 16, 1955 |title=Portraits by F. Burr on Exhibition at Stony Brook Museum |url=https://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=stn19550616-01.1.9&srpos=1&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-%22Frances+Burr%22--------- |work=The Smithtown News |pages=9 |via=NYS Historic Newspapers}}
= Flying, sports, war work, astronomy =
In 1930, while she was in Nevada for her divorce, Burr completed pilot training, and made several solo flights.{{Cite news |date=1930-09-09 |title=Solo Flight; Divorce Fills Day for Artist |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/nevada-state-journal-solo-flight-divorc/156232712/ |access-date=2024-09-29 |work=Nevada State Journal |pages=8 |via=Newspapers.com}} She became a competitive skier and diver in mid-life, and was also an active skater. "I've a bug about keeping fit", she said in a 1961 interview. "I think people who exercise regularly can tackle any strenuous activity all their lives".{{Cite news |last=Swift |first=Eileen |date=1961-08-03 |title=Sky is the Limit for Active Painter |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/newsday-nassau-edition-sky-is-the-limi/156235725/ |access-date=2024-09-29 |work=Newsday (Nassau Edition) |pages=37 |via=Newspapers.com}} During World War II, she hoped to join the Civil Air Patrol, but instead used her artistic talents working for the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, and making target charts for the U.S. Air Force.{{Cite book |last=United States Copyright Office |url=https://archive.org/details/CopyrightCards1946-1954_Part2/19461954REYNOLDS_E-RHE/page/n57/mode/2up?q=%22Frances+Burr%22+artist |title=1946-1954 Copyright Registration Cards (O-Z) |date=1946}}
After World War II, she became interested in astronomy, gave evening lectures on the night sky,{{Cite news |date=1961-07-27 |title=Star Show Slated |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/newsday-suffolk-edition-star-show-slat/156239612/ |access-date=2024-09-29 |work=Newsday (Suffolk Edition) |pages=37 |via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite news |date=August 4, 1961 |title=Star Gazing at Museum Tomorrow |url=https://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=lbp19610804-01.1.12&srpos=9&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-%22Frances+Burr%22--------- |work=Long Beach Progress |pages=12 |via=NYS Historic Newspapers}} and made constellation charts for school use. She compiled three volumes of biographies of the people memorialized with lunar place names.{{Cite news |date=1974-04-04 |title=Mrs. Reynolds, 84, Artist, Pilot, Author |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/bernardsville-news-mrs-reynolds-84-ar/156238911/ |access-date=2024-09-29 |work=Bernardsville News |pages=6 |via=Newspapers.com}} She also made engineering illustrations for Grumman Aircraft Corporation, and technical drawings for Republic Aviation Corporation.
Publications
Personal life
Burr married twice. Her first husband was Alfred H. Ely Jr.; they married in 1914{{Cite news |date=October 18, 1914 |title=Miss Frances Burr Weds; Bride of Alfred Ely, Jr.; Princeton Men Sing 'Old Nassau' |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1914/10/18/105459338.html?pageNumber=33 |work=The New York Times |pages=33}} and divorced in 1930.{{Cite news |date=1930-09-08 |title=Decrees Granted |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/reno-gazette-journal-decrees-granted/156230459/ |access-date=2024-09-29 |work=Reno Gazette-Journal |pages=3 |via=Newspapers.com}} Her second husband was lawyer John Reynolds; they married in 1930, and he died in 1966.{{Cite news |date=March 14, 1966 |title=Col. John Reynolds, A Lawyer 55 Years |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1966/03/14/79972785.html?pageNumber=31 |work=The New York Times |pages=31}} She had one son, Alfred Ely III, born 1918. She died in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in 1974, at the age of 83.{{Cite news |date=1974-03-29 |title=SF artist dies |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-santa-fe-new-mexican-sf-artist-dies/156238662/ |access-date=2024-09-29 |work=The Santa Fe New Mexican |pages=13 |via=Newspapers.com}}
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- [https://www.askart.com/artist/Frances_Burr/10007793/Frances_Burr.aspx Frances Burr at askART]
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