Robert Atkinson Fox (1860-1935)
Robert Atkinson Fox was a popular and prolific commercial artist from the early 1900s until the early 1930s. He was commissioned by major calendar companies and art print publishers to illustrate calendars, posters, postcards, picture puzzles, and various advertising materials.
Although Fox painted whatever subjects publishers requested - including, in the 1920s, those typical of the Art Deco mode - his strength was naturilism. Although some of his work has beginning collectors confused with that of Maxfield Parrish, Fox was a painter of mainly landscapes, portraits, and rural subjects (especially cows).
Fox was a professional painter before he turned illustrator. Although little information has been uncovered about his early life, we know that he took up art at an early age. R.A. Fox was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on December 11, 1860, the son of a Presbyterian minister. He left home in his early teens - apparently to further his study of art. For four years he studied art with John Wesley Bridgman, a portrait painter and member of the Ontario Society of Artists.
From about age seventeen to twenty-five, Fox earned his living as a portrait artist. He painted the portraits of such notables as President Grover Cleveland, President Benjamin Harrison, Sir John MacDonald, along with most of the presidents of his time. Fox's paintings were exhibited at both the Ontario Society of Artists and the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. At some point in his twenties he studied art and traveled in Europe. Some speculate that the Barbizon School of Painters in Paris influenced him. Like them, Fox used soft and light colors to create a mood of gentle, natural beauty.
In the late 1880s, Fox moved to New York City. In the 1890s, his paintings were auctioned in New York and Boston, exhibited with the Art Club of Philadelphia, and the New York Academy.
At the turn of the century, Fox moved to Philadelphia, where he married a concert pianist. Nothing more is known about his first wife except that she died in 1901. Fox did not discuss any details of this period of his personal life with his later family and friends.
In 1903 Fox married Ann Marie Gaffney of Salem, Massachusetts. Anna was then twenty-five years of age and Fox was almost forty-three. Numerous births and frequent moves marked their early years. Between 1904 and 1920, Anna gave birth to eight children. As the Fox Family grew, so did his fortune as he expanded his clientele among calendar, printing, and picture-frame companies. During this time, the family lived in various communities in New Jersey, close to Philadelphia where most of the artist's business was located. They finally settled on a farm in West Long Branch, New Jersey.
From West Long Branch, Fox made frequent trips to Chicago to the home of a major client, the John Baumgarth Company (which was subsequently sold to Brown & Bigelow). After Fox was involved in an automobile accident on one of his business trips, the family decided to move to Chicago to reduce his travel distance.
A tireless worker, Fox painted in his studio every day from memory, sketches, or photographs often completing a painting in a single day. Ironically, he had never been to the West at the time when he painted his Western landscapes.
After his paintings were completed, he would patiently make alterations to them as requested by the publisher. Sometimes, when he was not pleased with his work, or if requested by his client, he would use a pseudonym on his paintings.
Decedents of the Fox family and painting records from print and calendar companies have verified that Fox used the following pseudonyms:
- J.H. Banks
- G. Blanchard Carr or B. Carr
- John Colvin or J. Colvin
- Arthur DeForest or DeForest
- Dupre
- Elmer Lewis
- Musson; H. Musson; Ed. Musson or Edw. Musson
- George W. Turner
- Wainright; Charles Wainright; Chs. Wainright; C.N. Wainwright, Wainwright
- George White; Geo. W. White; Geo. White
- George Wood
Original Fox oil paintings are not easy to find. One reason could be that late in his career, Fox painted almost exclusively on commission for publication, therefore, he never intended the paintings to last and the companies often destroyed them.
After several years of ill health, Fox died in 1935 of heart disease and arteriosclerosis, which were complicated by bronchitis. His wife, Anna, remained in good health until her death in 1964.
R. Atkinson Fox's prints have been popular among collectors for decades and show no signs of diminishing.
- Excerpts from R.Atkinson Fox Identification & Price Guide by Patricia L. Gibson (2nd ed. 2000)