A. B. Frost Jr. Synchromist oil

Arthur Burdett Frost, Jr. (1887-1917) was the namesake of the illustrator A. B. Frost, who was famous for his depictions of Brer Rabbit, Brer Fox, and other characters from Joel Chandler Harris's Uncle Remus stories and for his hunting scenes. Frost had two boys; Arthur and John, both of whom studied under their father and at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and went on to become painters. Frost took his family to Paris so that his sons could have a traditional academic artistic training at the famous academies located in the French capital. John fell into line, attending classes at the Academie Julian and after returning to the U.S.A. became a successful, prominent painter of Impressionist landscapes in Florida; his work is quite well known and sought after on the market. Junior rebelled, leaving the Academie Julian and falling into the hands of Henri Matisse and the Fauve painters. He relinquished a traditional realist painting method, trading it in for vivid colors removed from nature and loose bold brushstrokes characteristic of Matisse and younger experimental artists, notably Patrick Henry Bruce and Sonia and Robert Delaunay. Few of his paintings are known because after returning to the United States during World War I, he died from tuberculosis. The only painting that was described in his writings is the much-reproduced Harlequin (see above). The current painting, depicting a woman seated in a garden, falls into a small group of similarly-themed paintings known to be by Frost, which blur human form and facial features, focusing instead on general forms and diagonal slashing brushstrokes of vivid color. Although the current painting is not signed, nor is the Harlequin, and the few other known paintings by Frost match mine coloristically, thematically, and stylistically, so I feel confident in assigning it to his hand.