Francis Quirk

Francis Quirk was born on June 3, 1907, in Pawtucket, Rhode Island.{{Cite web|url=https://www.artprice.com/artist/193783/francis-joseph-quirk/biography|title=ArtPrice.com biography|website=ArtPrice.com}} His parents Edward and Anne (née O’Neil) lived on 30 Waldo Street in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. He was the second of five children, the others being an older brother Edward, a younger brother Henry, younger sister Anna M. and younger sister Helen M.{{citation needed|date=March 2018}}

Quirk completed his undergraduate work at the Rhode Island School of Design where he was the co-founder of a short-lived student humor publication, The Salamander.{{Cite web|url=https://digitalcommons.risd.edu/studentnewspapers_collection_thesalamander/|title=The Salamander (1925-1926) {{!}} Student Newspapers {{!}} Rhode Island School of Design|website=digitalcommons.risd.edu|language=en|access-date=2017-11-25}} He completed his certificate in 1929 and his post graduate work in 1930. Upon graduation, he received the Trustees Post-Graduate Scholarship.{{Cite news |date=August 4, 1962 |title=Kinney Shores Couple Will Exhibit Art |pages=8 |work=Biddeford Saco Journal}} During this year he served on the staff of the "Student Designer" in the Art Department.{{Cite web|url=https://digitalcommons.risd.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1018&context=studentnewspapers|title=The Student Designer (1930) {{!}} Student Newspapers {{!}} Rhode Island School of Design|website=digitalcommons.risd.edu|language=en|access-date=2017-11-25}} He later continued post-graduate studies in 1941–1942 at the University of Pennsylvania. Biographies{{Cite web|url=https://www.artprice.com/artist/193783/francis-joseph-quirk/biography|title=The biography of Francis Joseph QUIRK: information and auctions for the artworks by the artist Francis Joseph QUIRK - Artprice.com|last=EHRMANN|first=Thierry|website=www.artprice.com|language=en|access-date=2017-11-15}} also list him as training in Provincetown, Massachusetts, Woodstock, New York, France and Italy. He also studied under J. R. Frazier and F. Sisson.{{Cite book|last=Falk|first=Peter|title=Who was who in American Art, 1564-1975: 400 Years of Artists in America|publisher=Soundview Press|year=1999|isbn=0932087558|location=Boston Atheneum|pages=Volume 3 Page 754}}

Quirk was an art teacher from 1930 until 1935 at the Montgomery School, for boys in grades 1–12 in Wynnewood, Pennsylvania.{{Cite web|url=https://www.scribd.com/document/48470554/Our-Town-May-8-1931|title=Our Town May 8, 1931 {{!}} Foods {{!}} Leisure|website=Scribd|language=en|access-date=2018-05-22}} While teaching at the school, Quirk was quite active outside the classroom and establishing himself as a talented artist.

In 1932, Quirk successfully competed for a place at the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation that allowed him to spend three months at Tiffany's estate at Laurelton Hall in Cold Spring Harbor on Long Island.{{Cite web|url=http://louiscomforttiffanyfoundation.org/about.html|title=Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation|website=Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation}} Judges for the competition included impressionist painter Child Hassam and sculptor Daniel Chester French.{{Cite web|url=https://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/louis-comfort-tiffany-foundation-records-8562|title=Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation records, 1918-1968|website=www.aaa.si.edu|language=en|access-date=2017-11-25}}

Also in 1932, Quirk exhibited at the Provincetown Art Association a painting of Fred Fischer's Place.{{Cite web|url=http://www.provincetownhistoryproject.com/PDF/059_276_578b-008-provincetown-art-association-exhibition-1932.pdf|title=Provincetown Art Association 1932 Exhibition Catalog|website=Provincetown History Project}} He also won the Juror's Prize at the Providence Art Club's Annual Exhibition with his painting of Scott Adams III.{{Cite web|url=https://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/providence-art-club-records-5788|title=Archives of the Providence Art Club at The Archives of American Art}}{{Cite web|url=http://francisquirk.blogspot.com/2015/08/francis-j-quirk-wins-prize-at.html|title=Francis J. Quirk Wins Prize at Providence Art Club|date=20 August 2015 }}

In 1935, Quirk began a 15-year relationship with the Ogontz School for Young Ladies.{{Cite web|url=https://libraries.psu.edu/about/collections/ogontz-school-1850-1950|title=The Ogontz School 1850-1950 {{!}} Penn State University Libraries|website=libraries.psu.edu|date=6 September 2016 |language=en|access-date=2017-11-25}} For the first 5 years he was Professor of Art, Drawing, and Painting. For the last 10 years he was Head of the Art Department. While at Ogontz, on September 12, 1936, he married Anna F. Feeley with whom he had two children, Ada-Lee and Jaimie.{{Cite news |date=August 25, 1956 |title=Wedding Vows Were Repeated |pages=2 |work=Biddeford Saco Journal}} Anna also served on the faculty of Ogontz College.{{Citation needed|date=January 2018}} She also was a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, was Supervisor of Art in Cranston, RI public school system, founded the Cranston School of Creative Arts and exhibited her paintings in Maine.

During his time at Ogontz, his reputation as a portrait painter grew considerably. He also painted Carl Sandburg at the request of Abby Sutherland Brown. The Writers Guild of Pennsylvania commissioned a portrait of Edgar Lee Masters in 1946 that later became the 70th painting to enter the collection of the US National Portrait Gallery.{{citation needed|date=March 2018}}

In 1940, Quirk exhibited a painting of him and his wife attending a concert at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art.{{citation needed|date=March 2018}}

Towards the end of Quirk's tenure at Ogontz he also was a Professor of Contemporary Perspective at Philadelphia's Hussian School of Art. He taught there from 1948 to 1950, shortly after the school's founding by John Hussian in 1946 with the support of principals at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

1950 was a landmark year for Quirk as he made a major transition to the all-male Lehigh University where he took over from Garth Howland as in the Fine Art Department and Director of Exhibits. In his first year he would expand the exhibit space with the establishment of the Memorial Gallery. He would later win the university's Lindbeck Award for distinguished teaching in 1965.

As Curator of the Collection he made three significant moves. First, he brought order through a comprehensive cataloging of the collection. Second, he created better display spaces and finally he began its expansion through donations from prominent alumni such as Ralph Wilson{{Cite web|url=http://www.lehigh.edu/engineering/about/alumni/wilson.html|title=Ralph Wilson: Distinguished Alumni at Lehigh Engineering|website=www.lehigh.edu|language=en|access-date=2017-11-25}} of the Timken Company and Eugene Grace of Bethlehem Steel and through borrowing. He also established lending relationships with the Ranger Fund, National Academy of Design and the Smithsonian Institution. Quirk also ran numerous exhibitions and established a program for exhibiting student art.

Technically, Quirk was an excellent draftsman who worked in a variety of medium and styles. At the time, the art world was in revolution with modern movements such as cubism and abstract art emerging. Quirk experimented in cubism, but largely remained true to a realistic style of portraiture and marine subjects.{{citation needed|date=March 2018}}

In the media, Quirk also hosted television programs "Art as We See It" and "It's Happening There" that were broadcast on Bethlehem, Pennsylvania Station, WGPA.{{Cite news|date=22 October 1957|title=Gallery Talks Scheduled for Museum Art Show|work=Reading Eagle|url=http://francisquirk.blogspot.com/2015/08/francis-j-quirk-painter-and-tv-star.html|access-date=11 November 2020}} He also hosted programs on Philadelphia's WFIL station: "These our Own" and "You Should Know What You Like."

During his time at Lehigh Quirk bought a home in the Mountain Club in Prescott, Arizona. He named the Pine Drive home Peterspen and was active in the Mountain Club community teaching art classes.{{Cite news |date=September 2, 1957 |title=Local Artist Has Exhibit |work=Prescott Evening Courier |pages=1}} He would spend two years on special assignment in Switzerland from 1959 to 1961.{{Cite news |date=June 29, 1961 |title=Around The Town |pages=22 |work=Biddeford Saco Journal}}

Quirk retired from teaching in 1969 but remained affiliated with the school as professor emeritus through 1972 and had a solo show there in 1973. That show featured works from his time at the Ossabaw Island Foundation who had awarded him a grant in 1968 and a fellowship in 1972.

Quirk retired to Peterspen North,{{Cite news|last=|first=|date=|year=|title=Kinney Shores Couple Will Exhibit|work=Biddeford-Saco Journal|publication-date=4 August 1962|url=|access-date=}} his home in the Kinney Shores area of Saco, Maine.{{Citation needed|date=January 2018}} He had spent many summers there and served as President of the Kinney Shores Association. He also exhibited his work at the Old Orchard Art Association where he had been honored with a prize in 1962 and sold his work through local galleries. He died on February 5, 1974, in the National Medical Care center in Portland Maine. He was buried in the Laurel Hill Cemetery in Saco, Maine.{{Citation needed|date=November 2017}}

• 1932, Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Fellowship
• 1932, Providence Art Club, Junior Prize
• 1940, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art
• 1946, Solo Show Women's City Club of Philadelphia{{Cite news|date=February 16, 1946|title=Philadelphia Inquirer Arts Section|work=Philadelphia Inquirer|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/9685411/the-philadelphia-inquirer-10-feb/|access-date=April 30, 2020}}
• 1950, Who's Who in the East
• 1950, Who's Who in Art
• 1956, Ocean Park Judges Award
• 1962, Old Orchard Award
• 1965, Lindback Award for distinguished teaching Lehigh University{{Cite web|url=https://awards.web.lehigh.edu/node/658|title=Faculty Awards Lehigh University|website=Awards Lehigh|access-date=28 February 2018}}
• Grantee 1968 and Fellow 1972, Ossabaw Island Project
• 1970, Impossible Art Exhibition
• 1973, Solo show, Allentown College of St. Francis de Sales
• 1974, Solo show, Lehigh University Art Gallery

National Portrait Gallery, Raclin Murphy Museum of Art (University of Notre Dame), Canton Art Institute, Georgia Museum of Art, Colby College (President Strider), Lehigh University Art Galleries, Monroe County Medical Center, American Consulate Zurich, Wilson College, Allentown College, Ships Museum (Savannah), Stroudsburg Hospital, Parker College.{{Cite web|url=https://www.artprice.com/artist/193783/francis-joseph-quirk/biography|title=ArtPrice.com Biography|website=ArtPrice.com}}{{Cite journal|date=October 1951|title=Man on the Cover Art Penetrates the Campus|url=https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7wmnR3K0c8XcENPVVJEaVAzV3c/view|journal=Lehigh Alumni Bulletin|volume=xxxix| issue = 1|pages=Cover, 8–9 19}}{{Citation needed|date=November 2017}}

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Category:1907 births

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Category:20th-century American painters

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Category:American portrait painters

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Category:Rhode Island School of Design alumni

Category:20th-century American male artists

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