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Albert Franck

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Albert Franck
Born
Albert Jacques Franck

(1899-04-02)April 2, 1899
Middelburg, Zeeland
DiedFebruary 28, 1973(1973-02-28) (aged 73)
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
NationalityDutch-born Canadian
Educationself-trained
SpouseFlorence Vale

Albert Jacques Franck (2 April 1899 – 28 February 1973) was a Canadian artist. He is known for his realistic paintings[1] of Toronto winter scenes,[2] dilapidated neighbourhoods[3][4] and back lanes.[5][6][7] His detailed paintings provide a historical record of conditions in some of Toronto's once less affluent neighbourhoods.[8][9]

Early life

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Franck was born at Middelburg, the Netherlands.[10] As a young man he was a champion swimmer.[11] He moved to Canada in 1926, making his living as a swimming instructor and by working in factories[5] He later worked in an art gallery and sold picture frames.[12]

Career

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Franck opened a studio in his small home on Gerrard Street in Toronto. He began by hanging some of his paintings in a local restaurant,[5] and in this way his work became locally known. In the 1950s he and his wife, artist Florence Vale,[13] developed the studio into a gathering place for the arts community. They hosted and supported the work of many young local artists,[5][14][15] particularly those participating in the emerging Toronto abstract art scene, including Joyce Wieland[16] and Kazuo Nakamura.[17] Franck and Vale later moved to a larger home, which also served as their studio and gallery, on Hazelton Street[18] as part of a general migration of the art community to the Yorkville area during the 1960s.[19]

Franck's first exhibition was presented at York University in 1963.[20] In 1973, he held an exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario. Franck also participated in a number of group exhibitions.

Franck's paintings are in the collections of the Art Gallery of Ontario,[21] the Museum London,[22] the National Exhibition Centre in St. Catharines,[23] the New Brunswick Museum,[24] and McMaster University Art Gallery.[25]

He was an Associate member of the Royal Canadian Academy (1961-1970), and a member of the Ontario Society of Artists (1958), the Canadian Society of Watercolour Painters, and the Canadian Society of Graphic Artists.[26]

Fellow artist Harold Town, a close friend,[27] wrote two books celebrating Franck's art.[28][29]

Franck also taught art in a local high school[30] and played the cello.[31] He and his wife sent small pieces of their art as greeting cards to friends and relatives, and some of these have survived.[32]

Franck died in Toronto on February 28, 1973.[6] A street in the St. Lawrence Neighbourhood of Toronto is named for him.[33]

References

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  1. ^ Commentator. Vol. 7–8. 1963. p. 24.
  2. ^ Tony Ruprecht (December 14, 2010). Toronto's Many Faces. Dundurn. pp. 122–. ISBN 978-1-4597-1804-3.
  3. ^ Nancy Byrtus; Mark Fram; Michael McClelland (September 27, 2013). East/West: A Guide to Where People Live in Downtown Toronto. Coach House Books. pp. 144–. ISBN 978-1-77056-043-7.
  4. ^ Robert C. Thomsen; Nanette Hale (2005). Canadian Environments: Essays in Culture, Politics, and History. Peter Lang. pp. 309–. ISBN 978-90-5201-295-7.
  5. ^ a b c d John Lorinc, "Looking back at Mary Johns, an artists’ haven in mid-century Toronto ". Toronto Star, July 19 2015
  6. ^ a b "Albert Jacques Franck". The Canadian Encyclopedia.
  7. ^ Bill Casselman (August 1, 1996). Casselmania: more wacky Canadian words & sayings. Little, Brown Canada. p. 86. ISBN 978-0-316-13314-2.
  8. ^ Leonard Brooks (1974). Oil painting ... traditional and new. Galahad Books. p. 110. ISBN 978-0-88365-128-5.
  9. ^ Marjorie Harris (January 1, 1984). Toronto, the City of Neighbourhoods. McClelland and Stewart. p. 12. ISBN 978-0-7710-3988-1.
  10. ^ Oliver Arpad Istvan Botar (2009). A Bauhausler in Canada: Andor Weininger in the '50s. Gallery One One One. p. 220. ISBN 978-0-921500-98-8.
  11. ^ John Virtue (October 25, 2001). Leonard and Reva Brooks: Artists in Exile in San Miguel de Allende. McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP. pp. 30–. ISBN 978-0-7735-6983-6.
  12. ^ Virtue (2001), p. 71.
  13. ^ Natalie Luckyj; Florence Vale; Agnes Etherington Art Centre (1980). Metamorphosis: memories, dreams and reflections : the work of Florence Vale. Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Queen's University. ISBN 9780889110151.
  14. ^ Roald Nasgaard (2008). Abstract Painting in Canada. Douglas & McIntyre. pp. 92–. ISBN 978-1-55365-394-3.
  15. ^ Maria Meindl (August 18, 2011). Outside the Box: The Life and Legacy of Writer Mona Gould, the Grandmother I Thought I Knew. MQUP. pp. 128–. ISBN 978-0-7735-8638-3.
  16. ^ Balkind, Alvin; Robert Bringhurst (1983). Visions: contemporary art in Canada. Douglas & McIntyre, Limited. p. 83. ISBN 978-0-88894-392-7.
  17. ^ Dennis R. Reid (1988). A concise history of Canadian painting. Oxford University Press. p. 253. ISBN 978-0-19-540664-1.
  18. ^ John Lorinc; Michael McClelland; Ellen Scheinberg; Tatum Taylor (June 23, 2015). The Ward: The Life and Loss of Toronto's First Immigrant Neighbourhood. Coach House Books. pp. 251–. ISBN 978-1-55245-311-7.
  19. ^ Stuart Henderson (April 30, 2011). Making the Scene: Yorkville and Hip Toronto in the Sixties. University of Toronto Press. pp. 56–. ISBN 978-1-4426-6199-8.
  20. ^ Michiel Horn (December 11, 2008). York University: The Way Must Be Tried. McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP. pp. 34–. ISBN 978-0-7735-7724-4.
  21. ^ "Toronto Imagined: The City in Words and Images". Art Gallery of Ontario.
  22. ^ Lela Wilson; Sandra Dyck (February 3, 1998). York Wilson: His Life and Work, 1907-1984. MQUP. pp. 217–. ISBN 978-0-7735-9606-1.
  23. ^ Jon Caulfield (1994). City Form and Everyday Life: Toronto's Gentrification and Critical Social Practice. University of Toronto Press. pp. 121–. ISBN 978-0-8020-7448-5.
  24. ^ New Brunswick Museum (1969). Museum Memo. p. 34.
  25. ^ McMaster University. Art Gallery; Kim Gibson Ness (1987). The art collection of McMaster University: European, Canadian and American paintings, prints, drawings and sculpture. McMaster University Press. p. 229. ISBN 978-0-920603-06-2.
  26. ^ Bradfield, Helen (1970). Art Gallery of Ontario: the Canadian Collection Collection. Toronto: McGraw Hill. ISBN 0070925046. OCLC 118037. Retrieved March 1, 2021.
  27. ^ Arts/Canada. Society for Art Publications. 1975. p. 48.
  28. ^ Reid (1988), p. 377.
  29. ^ Loren R. Lerner; Mary F. Williamson (January 1, 1991). Art and architecture in Canada: a bibliography and guide to the literature to 1981. University of Toronto Press. pp. 575–. ISBN 978-0-8020-5856-0.
  30. ^ Iris Nowell (2011). P11, Painters Eleven: The Wild Ones of Canadian Art. Douglas & McIntyre. pp. 300–. ISBN 978-1-55365-590-9.
  31. ^ Iris Nowell (2001). Joyce Wieland: A Life in Art. ECW Press. pp. 83–. ISBN 978-1-55022-476-4.
  32. ^ "Scene doesn't dwarf this plaque's appeal". Toronto Star, John Sewell, Jul 18 2009
  33. ^ Aaron, Bob (August 1, 2009). "A street by any other name is just as sweet". Toronto Star.

Bibliography

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