Frances Cranmer Greenman

{{Infobox artist

| name = Frances Cranmer Greenman

| image = Frances Cranmer Greenman.jpg

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| birth_name = Frances Willard Cranmer

| birth_date = {{birth date|1890|06|28}}

| birth_place = Aberdeen, South Dakota

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1981|05|24|1890|06|28}}

| death_place = Medina, Minnesota

| resting_place = Lakewood Cemetery

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| style = Painting

| movement = Modernism

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Frances Cranmer Greenman (June 28, 1890 – May 24, 1981) was an American portrait painter, critic and columnist.

Early life and education

Frances Willard Cranmer was born on June 28, 1890, in a log cabin in Aberdeen, South Dakota. Her parents were Hon. Simeon Harris Cranmer, and the suffragist, Emma Amelia Cranmer.{{cite book|last1=Willard|first1=Frances Elizabeth|last2=Livermore|first2=Mary Ashton Rice|title=A Woman of the Century: Fourteen Hundred-seventy Biographical Sketches Accompanied by Portraits of Leading American Women in All Walks of Life|url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_zXEEAAAAYAAJ|edition=Public domain|year=1893|publisher=Moulton|pages=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_zXEEAAAAYAAJ/page/n218 214]–}} She was named for suffragist Frances Willard. At 15, she attended the Wisconsin Academy of Art.{{cite news|title=Profiles of the five women artists|url=http://www.mprnews.org/story/2007/07/18/womenartistssidebar|work=MPR News|date=July 18, 2007|access-date=October 31, 2015|archive-date=November 21, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151121041242/http://www.mprnews.org/story/2007/07/18/womenartistssidebar|url-status=live}} At 16, she attended the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, D.C. In the 1900s, she studied with William Merritt Chase and Robert Henri in New York City. She won a gold medal from Corcoran in 1908.

Career

She moved to Minneapolis in the 1910s. She had her first major exhibition in 1913 at the Handicraft Guild.{{cite book|last1=Crump|first1=Robert L.|title=Minnesota Prints and Printmakers, 1900-1945|date=2009|publisher=Minnesota Historical Society Press|location=Saint Paul, MN|isbn=978-0-87351-635-8|page=98|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pXw4aG1TQpkC&q=%22Frances%20Cranmer%20Greenman%22&pg=PA98}} She went back to New York for several years before settling at the Hampshire Arms Hotel. Her permanent studio was on the fifth floor of the building and was painted completely black for her portraiture.{{cite news|last1=Sturdevant|first1=Andy|title=Frances Cranmer Greenman: Her art and autobiography depict 20th-century Minneapolis|url=https://www.minnpost.com/stroll/2015/01/frances-cranmer-greenman-her-art-and-autobiography-depict-20th-century-minneapolis|work=MinnPost|date=January 14, 2015|access-date=October 31, 2015|archive-date=October 29, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151029115817/http://www.minnpost.com/stroll/2015/01/frances-cranmer-greenman-her-art-and-autobiography-depict-20th-century-minneapolis|url-status=live}}

She was awarded a gold medal at the 1915 Minnesota State Fair for a group of three portraits.{{cite journal|author1=M. J.|title=Art and Agriculture in Minnesota|journal=Art and Progress|date=November 1915|volume=7|issue=1|page=36|jstor=20561584}}

Greenman was an established society painter in Minneapolis by the early 1920s and made portraits for Hollywood stars, politicians and socialites.

Her 1921 exhibition at the Bradstreet Gallery in Minneapolis was described in American Art News as "alternately gay and serious, prismatic and tonal."{{cite journal|title=Minneapolis|journal=American Art News|date=April 16, 1921|volume=19|issue=27|page=9|jstor=25589802}} Greenman was awarded first prize in painting at the seventh and eighth annual exhibitions of Twin City Artists. Her portrait Jane won the prize for the eighth exhibition in 1922.{{cite journal|title=Minneapolis|journal=American Art News|date=October 14, 1922|volume=21|issue=1|page=10|jstor=25590008}}

Greenman was replaced as a judge during the 1925 Iowa State Fair's Art Salon due to her modernist inclinations. Painter and exhibit head Charles Atherton Cumming postponed the art judging, first claiming that Greenman was ill. Greenman herself disputed this and Cumming went on to describe how she had been "converted to what she calls 'modern' art since I last viewed her exhibit." He explained that Iowa artists were "followers of 'white man's art'" and Greenman was replaced by one J. Laurie Wallace.{{cite book|last1=Rasmussen|first1=Chris|title=Carnival in the Countryside: The History of the Iowa State Fair|date=2015|publisher=University of Iowa Press|isbn=978-1-60938-357-2|page=152|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nQ9DCgAAQBAJ&q=%22Frances%20Cranmer%20Greenman%22&pg=PA152}}{{cite journal|last1=Rasmussen|first1=Chris|title=Agricultural Lag: The Iowa State Fair Art Salon, 1854-1941|journal=American Studies|date=Spring 1995|volume=36|issue=1|page=15|jstor=40643728}}

Following the Wall Street crash of 1929, Greenman left New York and supported her family by painting portraits for wealthy clients.

Greenman taught at the Minneapolis School of Art from 1941 to 1943. She also taught at the Art Institute of Chicago.

Her style was bold and informed by modernism. Her painting Pink Lotus depicted one David Painter and in a severe, flattened, and unflattering manner. While her earlier portraits were more adventurous, they became more conservative and conventional over time. Her 1922 work A Moment's Rest for Mrs. Hoscovics and her portraits of Polish immigrants in Wisconsin show that Greenman wanted to use her art to explore social issues.{{cite book|last1=Owens|first1=Gwendolyn|title=American Women Modernists: The Legacy of Robert Henri, 1910-1945|date=2005|publisher=Rutgers University Press|location=Provo|isbn=0-8135-3684-7|pages=151–152|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Tl0_m4YaXqkC&q=%22Frances%20Cranmer%20Greenman%22&pg=PA151}}

Greenman painted portraits of many famous people, including conductor Emil Oberhoffer, Dolores del Río, and Mary Pickford. She painted the official governor's portrait of Karl Rolvaag. It is hung in the Minnesota State Capitol.{{cite book|last1=Thornley|first1=Stew|title=Six Feet Under: A Graveyard Guide to Minnesota|date=2004|publisher=Minnesota Historical Society Press|location=St. Paul|isbn=0-87351-514-5|pages=9–10|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=z8bizMiODPcC&q=%22Frances%20Cranmer%20Greenman%22&pg=PA9}}

She wrote her autobiography, Higher Than the Sky in 1954. She also worked for the Minneapolis Sunday Tribune as a critic, writing the art column "Frances Greenman Says".

Death

Greenman died in Medina, Minnesota, on May 24, 1981.

Frances Cranmer Greenman

Early life and education

Career

Death

References

Further reading