Evening star., 1940-07-21
Bp Leila MechIin.

To the Corcoran Gallery of Art,
this summer, several notable loans
have been made, among them a
painting by the late Francis D.
Millet. entitled The Window Seat" )"
owned and lent by Fleming Newbold
Of this city. This is not only a
charming picture, to be admired
for itself. but recalls certain pages
in the history of American art most
worthy of remembrance.
Frank Millet was an outstanding
figure in the field of American art
from the 1870s until his tragic
death in 1912, during which years
he made very substantial contribu-
ton to the development of art in
this country. Notwithstanding the
fact that a good part of the time
he spent abroad. He was born to
leadership and was so known
throughout Europe, even from his
student days. He had exceptional
initiative and never feared to as
sumo responsibilities. At the time
THE Window Seat was painted,
he was the focal center of a re-
markable coterie of artists and
writer's in England, where he long
had home. During the 90s, he
brought mural painting to new i'm
portance in this country and gave
it standing as an independent
branch of art. In the early years
of the present century, he exerted
a strong and beneflcent influence
upon public appreciation of art as
a factor in cultural life-especially
with regard to governmental patron
age.
Many of these activities were, in
the last years of his life, conducted
from Washington, where he set up
a studio and maintained pied
de terre. On the Ellipse back of
the White House stands a modest
memorial to Frank Millet and his
friend, Col. Archie Butt, who with
him perished in the Titantic dis
aster. Better still, however, as
monuments to this artists genius
for constructive effort in his chosen
field are the American Academy at
Rome, the American Federation of
Arts, and the National Commission
of Fine Arts-in the founding and
organization of which he took an
important part.
Broadly Talented.
There was never more dynamic,
versatile, and universally talented
artist than Francis D. Millet. Born
November 3, 1886, in Mattapoisett,
Mass, of old New England, he was
on both sides of his family, of Puri-
tan descent, but from some remote
ancestor he inherited a Latin strain
which is said to be accountable for
certain contradictory vagaries. His
father was physician, as was one
of his brothers, and is now one
Of his sons. Another brother,
Joe Millet, was a publisher. His
sister married Sylvester Baxter,
writer on civic art and kindred
subjects talented family. Young
Frank early manifested inherent
vim by serving as a drummer boy
in the Civil War-toward its close.
Then came college-Harvard-from
which he graduated in 1869, Phi
Beta Kappa.
For a time he tried newspaper
work but his impulse was to paint,
and in II he went abroad to study
not to Paris or Dusseldorf. but
to Antwerp, where he entered the
academy. His roommates were
George Maynard of Washington
and Elijah Baxter of Providence.
r. I. The instruction they received
was essentially academic but the
life they lived was far from stodgy.
During the four years that Millet
attended the Antwerp Academy of
Art he made various excursions to
other parts of Europe, along or in
the company of other students.
One of these was down the Danube
In a canoe from the Black Forest
to the Black Sea-an account of
which he later published. Another
was to Venice. He had an ex-
traordinary aptitude for languages.
When he had been in Antwerp a
few months he talked Flemish
glibly; two weeks in Hungary equip
ped him to make a public address
in Hungarian: short sojourn in
Venice gave him command of the
Venetian dialect so that he could
hold his own with the best of the
gondoliers. He was always voluble.
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