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Albert Francis King

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Albert Francis King (1854 - 1945) was active/lived in Pennsylvania.  Albert King is known for Trompe still life, portrait and landscape painting.

Revered as one of Pittsburgh's premier portrait artists well into his eighties, Albert F. King is now remembered mostly for his meticulously realistic still life works, such as watermelons with a wedge missing, apples falling from a basket or strawberries spilling out of a chip basket.

Born in 1854, King was the product of Catholic parents forced to flee Germany to escape religious persecution. When they arrived in Pittsburgh, they changed their last name from Konig to King to avoid any further religious bias against Catholics. As an artist, their son was primarily self-taught, although he did study for a time under fellow Scalp Level School* member Martin Leisser.

Much in demand as a portrait painter by the prominent citizens of Pittsburgh, he painted many notables including Stephen Foster, Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick—although he rarely showed those works in public.

Except for a period of two years spent in Omaha, Nebraska in the mid-1930s, King worked i   ...  [Displaying 1000 of 3028 characters.]  Artist bio

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.  askART lists Albert Francis King in 1 of its research Essays. Albert Francis King has 24 artist signature examples available in our database.

Similar artists

.  There are 24 similar (related) artists for Albert Francis King available:    George Hetzel,  Austin Wooster,  Eugene Alonzo Poole,  Russell Smith,  James Sword,  Laurence A Campbell,  Harriette Bowdoin,  David Walkley,  George Lambdin,  George Sotter,  Joshua H Shaw,  William Anderson Coffin,  Paul LaCroix,  Franklin Briscoe,  Aaron Gorson,  Hendrik-Dirk Van Elten,  Paul Gottlieb Weber,  James Hamilton,  Carducius Ream,  Harry Willson Watrous,  William Louis Sonntag Jr,  Levi Wells Prentice,  Severin Roesen,  Charles Frederick Ulrich



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Facts about Albert Francis King

   Albert Francis King  Born:  1854 - Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Died:   1945 - Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Known for:  Trompe still life, portrait and landscape painting

Biography from the Archives of askART

Revered as one of Pittsburgh's premier portrait artists well into his eighties, Albert F. King is now remembered mostly for his meticulously realistic still life works, such as watermelons with a wedge missing, apples falling from a basket or strawberries spilling out of a chip basket.

Born in 1854, King was the product of Catholic parents forced to flee Germany to escape religious persecution. When they arrived in Pittsburgh, they changed their last name from Konig to King to avoid any further religious bias against Catholics. As an artist, their son was primarily self-taught, although he did study for a time under fellow Scalp Level School* member Martin Leisser.

Much in demand as a portrait painter by the prominent citizens of Pittsburgh, he painted many notables including Stephen Foster, Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick—although he rarely showed those works in public.

Except for a period of two years spent in Omaha, Nebraska in the mid-1930s, King worked in Pittsburgh his entire life. A 1938 Pittsburgh Sun Telegraph interview notes: "Today, at 83, the Pittsburgh painter [King] is still one to whom many turn to for portrait work. His hand is just as steady, his ability to secure a likeness just as infallible."

A member of the Pittsburgh Art Society and the Pittsburgh Art Association, King enjoyed a long and fruitful career, of which his landscapes were but a small fraction of his work, varying in quality and perhaps overshadowed by his better known colleagues.

 * For more in-depth information about these terms and others, see AskART.com. Glossary http://www.askart.com/AskART/lists/Art_Definition.aspx

Source:
Websit of The Stony Creek: About the Scalp Level Artists, 2020


Biography from the Archives of askART

Albert Francis King was born in 1854 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and was described by some critics as Pittsburgh's primary still-life painter of the 19th century. His subjects included fruit, vegetables and fish, depicted in compositions reflecting preparations for a meal, in the spirit of Jean-Bapiste-Simeon Chardin, the great 18th Century French painter of still-life.

His parents had immigrated from Germany to escape religious persecution, and changed their name from Konig to King in Pittsburgh, to further escape religious bias against Catholics.

King was primarily self taught but did study with Martin B. Leisser. Memberships included the Pittsburgh Art Society and the Pittsburgh Art Association.

He also painted sylvan landscapes in a Hudson River style, possibly at the small town of Scalp Level, a suburb of Johnstown, in southwest/central Pennsylvania. Also, he was much in demand as a portrait painter by prominent citizens of Pittsburgh including Stephen Foster, music composer.

King lived most of his life in Pittsburgh except a few years in Omaha, Nebraska late in his life.

Sources include:
Peter Hastings Falk (editor) Who Was Who in American Art
courtesy of Jackie Wolf Heinl


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