Frank Morley Fletcher (1866–1949), often referred to as F. Morley Fletcher, was a British painter and printmaker known primarily for his role in introducing Japanese colored

woodcut print Woodcut is a relief printing technique in printmaking. An artist carves an image into the surface of a block of wood—typically with gouges—leaving the printing parts level with the surface while removing the non-printing parts. Areas that ...

ing as an important genre in

Western art The art of Europe, or Western art, encompasses the history of visual art in Europe. European prehistoric art started as mobile Upper Paleolithic rock and cave painting and petroglyph art and was characteristic of the period between the Paleo ...

. Frank Fletcher was educated at the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...

followed by work at

St John's Wood Art School The St John's Wood Art School ( The Wood or Calderon's Art School) was an art school in St John's Wood, north London, England. The Art School was established in 1878 and was located on Elm Tree Road. It was founded by two art teachers, Elíseo Ab ...

and in the studio of

Hubert Vos Hubert Vos (February 15, 1855 – January 8, 1935) was a Dutch painter who was born Josephus Hubertus Vos in Maastricht. He studied at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels and with Fernand Cormon in Paris. He exhibited widely in Pa ...

. He continued his art studies in Paris at the atelier of

Fernand Cormon Fernand Cormon (24 December 1845 – 20 March 1924) was a French painter born in Paris. He became a pupil of Alexandre Cabanel, Eugène Fromentin, and Jean-François Portaels, and one of the leading historical painters of modern France. Biogra ...

in 1888. There his exposure to the Japanese colour

woodblock print Woodblock printing or block printing is a technique for printing text, images or patterns used widely throughout East Asia and originating in China in antiquity as a method of printing on textiles and later paper. Each page or image is create ...

led to a career in teaching and development of the subject. A student of his was the fellow woodblock print exponent, Allen W. Seaby He influenced the woodcut artist

Eric Slater ''Eric Slater should not be confused with another Eric Slater who designed ceramics in the 1930s.'' Eric Brindley Slater (1896 – 13 March 1963) was an English printmaker. Biography Eric Slater was a colour woodcut artist who had an international ...

, the botanical artist

Lilian Snelling Lilian Snelling (1879–1972) was "probably the most important British botanical artist of the first half of the 20th century". retrieved 13 March 2014 She was the principal artist and lithographer to ''Curtis's Botanical Magazine'' between 19 ...

. Fletcher taught in London and

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of letters, symbols, etc., especially by sight or touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process involving such areas as word recognition, orthography (spelling ...

schools, and from 1907 to 1923 was director of the

Edinburgh College of Art Edinburgh College of Art (ECA) is one of eleven schools in the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Edinburgh. Tracing its history back to 1760, it provides higher education in art and design, architecture, histor ...

, where the printmaker Helen Stevenson was among his pupils. He published ''Wood block printing: A description of the craft of Woodcutting and Colourprinting'' in 1916 which helped spread knowledge of Japanese woodcut prints in California and Britain. In 1924, Fletcher became school director of the

Santa Barbara School of the Arts Santa Barbara School of the Arts was a college of art founded in Santa Barbara, California, by artist Fernand Lungren (1857–1932) in 1920.

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

, United States. He resigned as director in the spring of 1930 and eventually moved to

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

where he continued to teach, paint, and exhibit. In the late 1930s, Fletcher's eyesight began to fail and his output became more sporadic. He moved to

Ojai Ojai ( ; Chumash: ''’Awhaỳ'') is a city in Ventura County, California. Located in the Ojai Valley, it is northwest of Los Angeles and east of Santa Barbara. The valley is part of the east–west trending Western Transverse Ranges and is ...

in the early 1940s and he died there on 2 November 1950. He was a brother of British physiologist

Walter Morley Fletcher Sir Walter Morley Fletcher, (21 July 1873 – 7 June 1933)- was a British physiologist and administrator. Fletcher graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Fletcher, Frank Morley 1866 births 1950 deaths Alumni of the University of London 19th-century English painters English male painters 20th-century English painters English printmakers English emigrants to the United States Edinburgh College of Art 20th-century British printmakers 20th-century English male artists 19th-century English male artists