A prominent resident of Old Lyme, Connecticut, Frank Bicknell
remains a bit of a mystery in that no photograph of him has been
located, but he was a popular figure in the Colony. However, his
accomplishments as an artist are not highly recognized.
He was born in Augusta, Maine and studied art in Malden, Massachusetts
with Albion Bicknell, likely a relative. At the age of 21 (1887),
he exhibited at the National Academy of Design and then moved
to New York City. By 1893, he was studying in Paris at the Academie
Julian with Robert Fleury and William Bouguereau.
Bicknell traveled extensively, from 1894 he visited Bermuda;
and from 1890-1903, he spent every spring in Paris and the French
countryside (with the exception of 1895-96); he was in Auvers-sur-Oise
and Barbizon, 1891; Japan, 1895; Eastern Mediterranean, 1900.
In 1894, he was living at the Salmagundi Club in New York
City and then he moved to "The Tower" at Madison Square
Garden, a high-rent place that indicates he was a man of wealth.
In 1913, he was elected an associate of the National Academy of
Design and for six years from 1919 taught at the College of Fine
Arts at the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh.
Bicknell came to Old Lyme in 1902 and lived there for nearly
40 years. He was an especially close friend of Florence Griswold
and often stayed at her boarding house in Old Lyme, where he was
introduced to Mr. & Mrs.Woodrow Wilson who purchased some
of his paintings.
In 1908, he made summer painting trips to Ogunquit and Monhegan,
Maine. Bicknell, a bachelor, referred to the other painters as
his "family." After 1916 he lived in the former home
of artist, Lewis Cohen. He died in 1943 in a nursing home in Essex.
Throughout his career he painted approximately 400 canvases.
He was also a member of the Salmagundi Club, the Lotus Club,
the National Arts Club, the MacDowell Club, the National Academy,
the American Art Association of Paris, the Pittsburgh Art Association
and the Watercolor Society.
