John Frost (1890-1937)
A highly respected artist, John Frost celebrated the varied California landscape through his paintings. Known for his unique impressionistic style, Frost captured the Sierra Nevada mountains and the arid desert with a clarity that few could rival.
John Frost was born in Philadelphia in May of 1890, the son of the famous sporting artist Arthur B. Frost. Jack, as he was called, trained under his father and later traveled to Paris where he studied at the Academie Julian under Jean Paul Laurens and Richard Miller. In 1912 he contracted tuberculosis and was hospitalized in a Swiss sanitarium until 1914. Returning to New York, Frost became a successful illustrator, but for continuing health reasons moved with his family to Pasadena, California in 1919.
Once there, his father’s friend, impressionist Guy Rose, influenced the younger Frost and the three artists were often seen on painting excursions. John Frost was a member of the California Art Club, Painters and Sculptors of Los Angeles, and the Pasadena Society of Fine Arts.
John Frost’s life and career were cut tragically short in 1937 through illness at forty-seven.
Biographical note courtesy of the Coeur d’Alene Art Auction.