The Sporting Art of Frank W. Benson

About this book

Frank Benson a pivotal artist of the American Impressionist movement had three great loves in his long and productive life: his family his art and the sporting life. As a boy Benson dreamed of being an ornithological illustrator. In mid-life after an extremely successful career as a portraitist he returned to the wildfowl and sporting subjects that were his lifelong passion. Over the next forty years in etching lithography watercolor and oil and wash he portrayed birds beloved since childhood scenes of his hunting and fishing expeditions and still lives of incomparable delicacy. Whether painting a hunter setting out decoys a wash of geese by moonlight a watercolor of a companion poised to gaff a salmon or an etching of a group of ducks silently gliding in for a landing Benson conveyed the joy and beauty of a sportsmans life.