Millard Sheets

Circus Wagons

1927

Mickey Finn Youth Club, 1951, oil on Masonite, signed and dated lower right, signed, titled and dated verso, 20 x 24 inches, presented in an older frame Edgar Kiechle was a Los Ange...

What a Life, c. 1930, mixed media on board, 18 x 24 inches, signed lower left; titled on label; exhibited at The San Francisco Art Association Fifty-Second Annual Exhibition at the P...

The Show is On, 1940, oil on canvas, signed and dated lower right, 24 x 20 inches, exhibited: 30th Annual Exhibition of the Associated Artists of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Institute, Pitt...

This painting is part of our exhibition American Coast to Coast: Artists of the 1930s Knight’s Lodging, 1941, oil on canvas panel, signed and dated lower left, 16 x 20 inches, exhi...

Signed lower right, 'A. Dygert' for Audrey Dygert (American, 1922-2010) with artist seal and painted circa 1985. Born Audrey Harper of Albany, California, Audrey Dygert was a lifel...

Frank Nelson Wilcox (American, 1887-1964) Circus Lot at Toledo, c. 1920 Watercolor on Whatman board Signed lower right 22 x 30 inches Frank Nelson Wilcox (October 3, 1887 – April 17, 1964) was a modernist American artist and a master of watercolor. Wilcox is described as the "Dean of Cleveland School painters," though some sources give this appellation to Henry Keller or Frederick Gottwald. Wilcox was born on October 3, 1887 to Frank Nelson Wilcox, Sr. and Jessie Fremont Snow Wilcox at 61 Linwood Street in Cleveland, Ohio. His father, a prominent lawyer, died at home in 1904 shortly before Wilcox' 17th birthday. His brother, lawyer and publisher Owen N. Wilcox, was president of the Gates Legal Publishing Company or The Gates Press. His sister Ruth Wilcox was a respected librarian. In 1906 Wilcox enrolled from the Cleveland School of Art under the tutelage of Henry Keller, Louis Rorimer, and Frederick Gottwald. He also attended Keller's Berlin Heights summer school from 1909. After graduating in 1910, Wilcox traveled and studied in Europe, sometimes dropping by Académie Colarossi in the evening to sketch the model or the other students at their easels, where he was influenced by French impressionism. Wilcox was influenced by Keller's innovative watercolor techniques, and from 1910 to 1916 they experimented together with impressionism and post-impressionism. Wilcox soon developed his own signature style in the American Scene or Regionalist tradition of the early 20th century. He joined the Cleveland School of Art faculty in 1913. Among his students were Lawrence Edwin Blazey, Carl Gaertner, Paul Travis, and Charles E. Burchfield. Around this time Wilcox became associated with Cowan Pottery. In 1916 Wilcox married fellow artist Florence Bard, and they spent most of their honeymoon painting in Berlin Heights with Keller. They had one daughter, Mary. In 1918 he joined the Cleveland Society of Artists, a conservative counter to the Bohemian Kokoon Arts Club, and would later serve as its president. He also began teaching night school at the John Huntington Polytechnic Institute at this time, and taught briefly at Baldwin-Wallace College. Wilcox wrote and illustrated Ohio Indian Trails in 1933, which was favorably reviewed by the New York Times in 1934. This book was edited and reprinted in 1970 by William A. McGill. McGill also edited and reprinted Wilcox' Canals of the Old Northwest in 1969. Wilcox also wrote, illustrated, and published Weather Wisdom in 1949, a limited edition (50 copies) of twenty-four serigraphs (silk screen prints) accompanied by commentary "based upon familiar weather observations commonly made by people living in the country." Wilcox displayed over 250 works at Cleveland's annual May Show. He received numerous awards, including the Penton Medal for as The Omnibus, Paris (1920), Fish Tug on Lake Erie (1921), Blacksmith Shop (1922), and The Gravel Pit (1922). Other paintings include The Trailing Fog (1929), Under the Big Top (1930), and Ohio Landscape...

In this oil painting, I sought to capture a vibrant, bustling scene from a circus town. The warm sunlight bathes the characters—depict lovers of performing arts, and the splendid hor...

Before there was the Cirque du Soleil to astonish audiences with extraordinary acrobatics and spectacular showmanship, America’s traveling circuses drew patrons to enormous tents pit...