Francis Chapin Art
American, 1899-1965
Francis Chapin, affectionately called the “Dean of Chicago Painters” by his colleagues, was one of the city’s most popular and celebrated painters in his day. Born at the dawn of the 20th Century in Bristolville, Ohio, Chapin graduated from Washington & Jefferson College near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania before enrolling at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1922. He would set down deep roots at the Art Institute of Chicago, exhibiting there over 31 times between 1926 and 1951. In 1927 Chapin won the prestigious Bryan Lathrop Fellowship from the Art Institute – a prize that funded the artist’s yearlong study trip to Europe. Upon his return to the United States, Chapin decided to remain in Chicago, noting the freedom Chicago artists have in developing independently of the pressure to conform to pre-existing molds (as was experienced by artists in New York, for example). Chapin became a popular instructor at the Art Institute, teaching there from 1929 to 1947 and at the Art Institute’s summer art school in Saugatuck, Michigan (now called Oxbow) between 1934 – 1938 (he was the director of the school from 1941-1945).
A prolific painter, Chapin produced numerous works while traveling in Mexico, France, Spain, Saugatuck and Martha’s Vineyard, where he frequently spent summers and taught at the Old Sculpin Gallery there. Chapin was best recognized for his dynamic and vibrant images of Chicago during the 1930s and 40s. Chapin was a resident of the Old Town neighborhood where he lived and kept his studio on Menomonee Street for many years. Described as a “colorful figure, nearly 6 feet 6 inches tall, and thin, and usually wearing tweeds”, it is easy to imagine Chapin at work observing the busy street life of the city.
In addition to his many exhibitions at the Art Institute of Chicago, Chapin’s work was shown during his lifetime at such institutions as the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia; the Corcoran Gallery, Washington, D.C.; the National Academy of Design, New York; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York and the Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, among others. Francis Chapin’s paintings are represented in the collections the Art Institute of Chicago; the Friedman Collection, Chicago; the Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown; the Denver Art Museum; the Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse; the Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach; the Telfair Museum of Art, Savannah and the Brooklyn Museum of Art, among others.(Biography provided by Richard Norton Gallery, LLC)
to
5
20
6
20
9
10
1
Overall Height
to
Overall Width
to
19
1
11
9
6
4
4
3
3
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
20
1
4
1
12
1
20
6,827
3,109
2,517
1,217
15
9
8
7
4
Artist: Francis Chapin
A ca 1954 Watercolor & Ink Image of a Notre Dame Football Game by Francis Chapin
By Francis Chapin
Located in Chicago, IL
A ca. 1954 watercolor and ink on paper image of a Notre Dame football game by artist Francis Chapin.
Francis Chapin, affectionately called the “Dean of...
Category
1950s American Modern Francis Chapin Art
Materials
Paper, Watercolor, Ink
Watercolor & Ink on Paper Image of a Notre Dame Football Game by Francis Cahpin
By Francis Chapin
Located in Chicago, IL
A ca. 1954, watercolor and ink on paper image of a Notre Dame football game by artist Francis Chapin.
Francis Chapin, affectionately called the “D...
Category
1950s American Modern Francis Chapin Art
Materials
Paper, Ink, Watercolor
Watercolor on Paper Study of a Notre Dame Football Game by Artist Francis Chapin
By Francis Chapin
Located in Chicago, IL
A ca. 1954 watercolor of a football scrimmage at Notre Dame, by artist Francis Chapin. This was a study for a painting he created for the University in 1954. The original painting ...
Category
1950s American Modern Francis Chapin Art
Materials
Paper, Watercolor
A ca. 1954, drawing of a Notre Dame Football Game by Artist Francis Chapin
By Francis Chapin
Located in Chicago, IL
A ca. 1954 pastel & charcoal on paper drawing of a Notre Dame football game by artist Francis Chapin.
Francis Chapin, affectionately called the “D...
Category
1950s American Modern Francis Chapin Art
Materials
Paper, Charcoal, Pastel
Untitled (Martha’s Vineyard)
By Francis Chapin
Located in Chicago, IL
A colorful view of Martha's Vineyard (Depicting Edgartown's main street) by Francis Chapin, from around 1950.
Francis Chapin, affectionately called the “Dean of Chicago Painters” by...
Category
1950s American Modern Francis Chapin Art
Materials
Masonite, Oil
Untitled (Vineyard Harbor)
By Francis Chapin
Located in Chicago, IL
A colorful view of Martha's Vineyard by Francis Chapin, from the 1930s.
Francis Chapin, affectionately called the “Dean of Chicago Painters” by his colleagues, was one of the city’s most popular and celebrated painters in his day. Born at the dawn of the 20th Century in Bristolville, Ohio, Chapin graduated from Washington & Jefferson College near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania before enrolling at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1922. He would set down deep roots at the Art Institute of Chicago, exhibiting there over 31 times between 1926 and 1951. In 1927 Chapin won the prestigious Bryan Lathrop Fellowship from the Art Institute – a prize that funded the artist’s yearlong study trip to Europe. Upon his return to the United States, Chapin decided to remain in Chicago, noting the freedom Chicago artists have in developing independently of the pressure to conform to pre-existing molds (as was experienced by artists in New York, for example). Chapin became a popular instructor at the Art Institute, teaching there from 1929 to 1947 and at the Art Institute’s summer art school in Saugatuck, Michigan (now called Oxbow) between 1934 – 1938 (he was the director of the school from 1941-1945).
A prolific painter, Chapin produced numerous works while traveling in Mexico, France, Spain, Saugatuck and Martha’s Vineyard, where he frequently spent summers and taught at the Old Sculpin Gallery there. Chapin was best recognized for his dynamic and vibrant images of Chicago during the 1930s and 40s. Chapin was a resident of the Old Town neighborhood where he lived and kept his studio on Menomonee Street for many years. Described as a “colorful figure, nearly 6 feet 6 inches tall, and thin, and usually wearing tweeds”, it is easy to imagine Chapin at work observing the busy street life of the city.
In addition to his many exhibitions at the Art Institute of Chicago, Chapin’s work was shown during his lifetime at such institutions as the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia; the Corcoran Gallery, Washington, D.C.; the National Academy of Design, New York; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York and the Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, among others. Francis Chapin’s paintings are represented in the collections the Art Institute of Chicago; the Friedman Collection, Chicago; the Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown; the Denver Art Museum; the Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse; the Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach...
Category
1930s American Modern Francis Chapin Art
Materials
Masonite, Oil
Vineyard Light
By Francis Chapin
Located in Chicago, IL
A painting depicting a lighthouse in Martha's Vineyard by Francis Chapin, from around 1950.
Francis Chapin, affectionately called the “Dean of Chicago Painters” by his colleagues, w...
Category
1950s American Modern Francis Chapin Art
Materials
Board, Oil
Yellow Sky at Menemsha
By Francis Chapin
Located in Chicago, IL
A colorful view of Menemsha in Martha's Vineyard by Francis Chapin, from around 1950.
Francis Chapin, affectionately called the “Dean of Chicago Painters” by his colleagues, was one...
Category
1950s American Modern Francis Chapin Art
Materials
Masonite, Oil
Nantucket Steamer
By Francis Chapin
Located in Chicago, IL
A gem of a painting depicting a Nantucket lighthouse by Francis Chapin, from around 1950.
Francis Chapin, affectionately called the “Dean of Chicago Painters” by his colleagues, was...
Category
1950s American Modern Francis Chapin Art
Materials
Oil, Board
Oak Bluffs, Mass. (Martha’s Vineyard)
By Francis Chapin
Located in Chicago, IL
A view of Oak Bluffs, MA on Martha's Vineyard by Francis Chapin, from around 1950.
Francis Chapin, affectionately called the “Dean of Chicago Painters” by his colleagues, was one of...
Category
1950s American Modern Francis Chapin Art
Materials
Masonite, Oil
Edgartown Yacht Club
By Francis Chapin
Located in Chicago, IL
A striking view of the Edgartown Yacht Club on Martha's Vineyard by Francis Chapin, from around 1958.
Francis Chapin, affectionately called the “Dean of Chicago Painters” by his col...
Category
1950s American Modern Francis Chapin Art
Materials
Color, Lithograph
Edgartown Harbor
By Francis Chapin
Located in Chicago, IL
A lithograph with pastel depicting the Edgartown Harbor on Martha's Vineyard by Francis Chapin, from around 1958.
Francis Chapin, affectionately called the “Dean of Chicago Painters...
Category
1950s American Modern Francis Chapin Art
Materials
Lithograph, Pastel
Edgartown Harbor
By Francis Chapin
Located in Chicago, IL
A view of Edgartown Harbor on Martha's Vineyard by Francis Chapin, from around 1958.
Francis Chapin, affectionately called the “Dean of Chicago Painters” by his colleagues, was one ...
Category
1950s American Modern Francis Chapin Art
Materials
Lithograph
Afternoon Race, Edgartown
By Francis Chapin
Located in Chicago, IL
A view of an afternoon race in Edgartown on Martha's Vineyard by Francis Chapin, from 1964.
Francis Chapin, affectionately called the “Dean of Chicago Painters” by his colleagues, w...
Category
1960s American Modern Francis Chapin Art
Materials
Lithograph
Untitled
By Francis Chapin
Located in Dallas, TX
Francis Chapin was one of the most celebrated painters in Chicago during his lifetime. When he was a young art student, Valley House founder, Donald Vogel, painted with "Chape" on th...
Category
Mid-20th Century American Modern Francis Chapin Art
Materials
Paper, Watercolor
Little River
By Francis Chapin
Located in Sheffield, MA
Francis Chapin
American 1899-1965
Little River
Oil on canvas
28 by 40 in. W/frame 38 by 50 in.
Dubbed the Dean of Chicago Painters in the 1930s, 40s and 50s, Francis Chapin painte...
Category
1920s Post-Impressionist Francis Chapin Art
Materials
Oil
Untitled (Boat Repair)
By Francis Chapin
Located in Dallas, TX
Francis Chapin was one of the most celebrated painters in Chicago during his lifetime. When he was a young art student, Valley House founder, Donald Vogel, painted with "Chape" on th...
Category
1940s American Modern Francis Chapin Art
Materials
Paper, Watercolor
Untitled
By Francis Chapin
Located in Dallas, TX
Francis Chapin was one of the most celebrated painters in Chicago during his lifetime. When he was a young art student, Valley House founder, Donald Vogel, painted with "Chape" on th...
Category
1930s American Modern Francis Chapin Art
Materials
Ink, Paper, Watercolor
Untitled
By Francis Chapin
Located in Dallas, TX
Francis Chapin was one of the most celebrated painters in Chicago during his lifetime. When he was a young art student, Valley House founder, Donald Vogel, painted with "Chape" on th...
Category
1930s American Modern Francis Chapin Art
Materials
Paper, Watercolor
Untitled
By Francis Chapin
Located in Dallas, TX
Francis Chapin was one of the most celebrated painters in Chicago during his lifetime. When he was a young art student, Valley House founder, Donald Vogel, painted with "Chape" on th...
Category
1930s Modern Francis Chapin Art
Materials
Paper, Watercolor
Related Items
Houses by the Lane, Bermuda
By Henry Martin Gasser
Located in New York, NY
Signed lower left: H. GASSER
Category
20th Century American Modern Francis Chapin Art
Materials
Oil, Panel
African American Woman artist Mailou Jones Cezannian Cote d'Azur cubist village
Located in Norwich, GB
If you are interested in African American Art and in Women in the Arts, I will certainly not need to introduce Lois Mailou Jones (1905-1988). Often associated with the Harlem Renaiss...
Category
Mid-19th Century American Modern Francis Chapin Art
Materials
Watercolor, Gouache, Handmade Paper
H 29.93 in W 25.79 in D 1.19 in
"Grimacing Giant"
By James Joseph Kearns
Located in Southampton, NY
Mid century charcoal and watercolor drawing with grey wash of a grimacing giant by the American artist, James Joseph Kearns. Titled and dated lower left and signed and dated again l...
Category
1950s American Modern Francis Chapin Art
Materials
Archival Paper, Charcoal, Watercolor
Jefferson Market Library (Courthouse)
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This painting is part of our exhibition America Coast to Coast: Artists of the 1930s
Jefferson Market Library (Courthouse), c. 1930s, oil on canvas, 30 x 24 inches, signed lower right; presented in a newer silver painted frame
About the Painting
Writing about an exhibition of Charles W. Adams’ work at the Eighth Street Art Gallery in the mid-1930s, Emily Grenauer observed in The World-Telegram that the artist’s paintings were “distinguished for their solid form, well organized design and sumptuous color” and the art critic for The Herald Tribune found Adam’s work “a strong, formal realization of his subject . . . he paints with vital emphasis on structure and composition.” Although we do not know which works these critics referenced, it is likely they were writing about paintings like Jefferson Market Library (Courthouse). With its carefully designed reality, strong angles, solid forms, and well-disciplined puffs of smoke in the background, Adams presents a highly structured version of the Greenwich Village landmark, the Jefferson Market Library, which was a courthouse at the time Adams completed this work. The Jefferson Market Library was a prized subject for downtown painters, including the Ashcan School painter, John Sloan, the modernist, Stuart Davis, and the precisionist, Francis Criss...
Category
1930s American Modern Francis Chapin Art
Materials
Oil
Native Mexican Woman (Cuban Miami artist pastel)
Located in Wilton Manors, FL
Alex (Cuban, b.1949). Indigenous Mexican Woman, 1982. Pastel and charcoal on wove paper, sheet measures 23 x 33 inches. 31.5 x 41 inches framed. Excellen...
Category
1980s Modern Francis Chapin Art
Materials
Paper, Charcoal, Pastel
Blue Lake
By George Marinko
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This painting is part of our exhibition America Coast to Coast: Artists of the 1940s.
Blue Lake, c. 1940s, oil on masonite, signed lower right, 20 x 36 inches, label and inscriptio...
Category
1940s American Modern Francis Chapin Art
Materials
Masonite, Oil
'Portrait of a Young Navajo', Native American, Arizona, California Woman artist
By Victoria Creech Stewart
Located in Santa Cruz, CA
Signed lower left 'Creech PSWC' and created circa 1975
A compelling pastel study showing the subject dressed in brightly-colored ceremonial robes and gazing past the viewer. An eleg...
Category
1970s American Modern Francis Chapin Art
Materials
Pastel, Archival Paper
Moonlight Shanties
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Moonlight Shanties, c. 1940s, oil on canvas, 24 x 18 inches, signed lower right, signed and titled verso
About the Painting
In Moonlight Shanties, Joachim depicts a lower-class neighborhood sitting along-side an elevated road or railway which crowds out the small nearby houses and structures. Joachim’s use of an expressionist palette and gestural brushstrokes together with the isolated figures obscured in the shadows, create a feeling of unease, isolation and even loneliness. From the 1920s through 1940s, American artists commonly employed expressionist conventions in their social realist works which portrayed the gritty side of urban America, especially the communities of the city-dwelling poor. Expressionist styles were considered appropriate for bridging the gap between the modernist idea of art-for-art’s-sake and the narrative qualities demanded by the dual crises of the Great Depression and World War II. Moonlight Shanties successfully uses these expressionist methods to portray a neighborhood and its people who appear to be literally and figuratively “on the edge.”
About the Artist
Paul Lamar Joachim...
Category
1940s American Modern Francis Chapin Art
Materials
Oil
The Sketch Class, Figurative Study Line Drawing
By David Rosen (b.1912)
Located in Soquel, CA
Expressive line drawing figure study featuring a group of figures in a classroom by David Rosen (Canadian, 1912-2004). Unsigned, but was acquire...
Category
Late 20th Century American Modern Francis Chapin Art
Materials
Paper, Pen, Watercolor
H 12 in W 8 in D 0.25 in
Nude, 1959, Ink and Watercolor, Figure, Mid-Century, American
By Knox Martin
Located in Wiscasset, ME
Born in Barranquilla, Colombia in 1923, Knox Martin moved with his family to New York City in 1927. He attended The Art Students League of New York from 1946 to 1950 under the GI Bil...
Category
20th Century American Modern Francis Chapin Art
Materials
Ink, Watercolor
Cats Watching a Witch on a Broomstick - Vintage Halloween Illustration in Ink
By Irene Pattinson
Located in Soquel, CA
Cats Watching a Witch on a Broomstick - Vintage Halloween Illustration in Ink
Halloween scene with cats and a witch in India ink pen by Irene Pattinson (American, 1909-1999). A blac...
Category
1950s American Modern Francis Chapin Art
Materials
Paper, Watercolor, Pen, India Ink
H 18 in W 20 in D 0.25 in
“Ski Style 1960”
By Kenneth Paul Block
Located in Southampton, NY
Here for your consideration is an original mixed media fashion illustration by the world renowned fashion artist, Kenneth Paul Block. Signed with initials bottom right. Circa 1965. ...
Category
1960s American Modern Francis Chapin Art
Materials
Oil Pastel, Watercolor, Archival Paper
Previously Available Items
Untitled (Columbia Dock)
By Francis Chapin
Located in Dallas, TX
Francis Chapin was one of the most celebrated painters in Chicago during his lifetime. When he was a young art student, Valley House founder, Donald Vogel, painted with "Chape" on th...
Category
1940s American Modern Francis Chapin Art
Materials
Crayon, Paper, Watercolor
Untitled
By Francis Chapin
Located in Dallas, TX
Francis Chapin was one of the most celebrated painters in Chicago during his lifetime. When he was a young art student, Valley House founder, Donald Vogel, painted with "Chape&q...
Category
1940s American Modern Francis Chapin Art
Materials
Paper, Watercolor
Untitled
By Francis Chapin
Located in Dallas, TX
Francis Chapin was one of the most celebrated painters in Chicago during his lifetime. When he was a young art student, Valley House founder, Donald Vogel, painted with "Chape" on th...
Category
1930s American Modern Francis Chapin Art
Materials
Ink, Paper, Watercolor
Untitled
By Francis Chapin
Located in Dallas, TX
Francis Chapin was one of the most celebrated painters in Chicago during his lifetime. When he was a young art student, Valley House founder, Donald Vogel, painted with "Chape&q...
Category
1930s American Modern Francis Chapin Art
Materials
Paper, Watercolor
Untitled
By Francis Chapin
Located in Dallas, TX
Francis Chapin had an active exhibition history with over 24 major museum and gallery exhibitions including two at the Art Institute of Chicago (1928 & 1952) and one at the Museum of...
Category
1930s Francis Chapin Art
Materials
Watercolor
Francis Chapin art for sale on 1stDibs.
Find a wide variety of authentic Francis Chapin art available for sale on 1stDibs. You can also browse by medium to find art by Francis Chapin in paint, oil paint, masonite and more. Much of the original work by this artist or collective was created during the 20th century and is mostly associated with the modern style. Not every interior allows for large Francis Chapin art, so small editions measuring 10 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Frank Wilcox, Alfred Bendiner, and Harold Haydon. Francis Chapin art prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $850 and tops out at $12,500, while the average work can sell for $1,800.