ARTIST: Frank Tolles Chamberlin (New York, California, 1873 - 1961)
TITLE: Seated Woman
MEDIUM: oil on canvas
CONDITION: Some paint losses mostly along edges. Some craquelure. No visible inpaint under UV light.
ART SIZE: 25 x 19 inches / 63 x 48 cm
FRAME SIZE: unframed (In-House framing available)
SIGNATURE: unsigned
NAME VARIANTS: Frank Tolles Chamberlain, F Tolles Chamberlin
CATEGORY: old antique vintage painting for auction sale online
AD: ART CONSIGNMENTS WANTED. CONTACT US
SKU#: 123782
US Shipping $75 + insurance.

BIOGRAPHY:
Frank Tolles Chamberlin was born in San Francisco on March 10, 1873. In 1879, his family returned to the Chamberlin homestead near Ascutneyville, Vermont. Six years after their arrival in Vermont they sold the family farm and moved to Hartford, Connecticut. In Hartford, Tolles was enrolled in public school and the Hannan Business College. The move proved both academically and artistically beneficial, for it was here that he began to take drawing lessons with Dwight W. Tryon at the Wadsworth Atheneum.In 1900, his father and brothers left for the booming real estate market in Texas, while Chamberlin and his mother joined his sister in New Rochelle, New York. In 1901, Chamberlin began to work for the landscape architect, Nathan Barrett, producing technical drawings and watercolor renderings. Beginning in 1906, he worked as an architectural draftsman in the offices of William Wheeler Smith. During his years in New York, Chamberlin also attended night classes at the Art Students League under the tutelage of George de Forest Brush and George Bridgman.In 1908, his artistic ambition drove him to resign from his position with Smith in order to pursue the prestigious Lazarus Scholarship, which offered an all-expenses paid education at the American Academy in Rome. The competition required that each contestant create a mural design within one working day and then execute the design within three weeks. Chamberlin’s time and efforts were not in vain. In November of that year, he left New York to study in Rome for the next three years. While in Italy, Chamberlin traveled to other Italian cities including Naples, Pompeii, Capri, and Sicily. In 1911, he was asked by the Director of the Academy, Frank Millet, to aid in mural commissions.In 1912, Chamberlin returned to New York. Three years later he began a life long career as an arts educator. Originally hired to teach a six-week course in life and nature forms at the Beaux Arts Institute of Design, his popularity with both students and faculty would cause them to plead for him to stay for four more years. As his male students enlisted in to fight in World War I in 1917, his watercolor rendering class at the School of Architecture of Columbia University was cancelled. Chamberlin himself volunteered; however, his age prevented him from going to battle. In the end, he served his country by teaching marksmanship to the army’s 7th Regiment.In 1918, Chamberlin married Katherine Beecher Stetson, a daughter of the artist Charles Walter Stetson and the author Charlotte Perkins Gilman. A year later Chamberlain and his new bride, along with their infant daughter, moved to Southern California. In Los Angeles, Chamberlin accepted a position at the Otis Art Institute. He later went on to co-found the Chouinard Art Institute with Mrs. Nelbert Chouinard. In 1923, he began to instruct watercolor rendering classes for the School of Architecture at the University of Southern California (USC). He continued as an instructor at both institutes until 1928, when he resigned from USC in order to focus on his teaching at Chouinard and his own career as an artist.In 1955, Chamberlin was honored with a retrospective exhibition at the Pasadena Art Museum. He was given free reign to select and arrange the works on display. On July 24, 1961, he died after years of suffering from heart attacks, facial shingles, and a number of operations. Although his health problems often prevented him from executing his artistic vision, Chamberlin was an ambitious artist right up to the time of his death.