A. B. Frost

A. B. Frost
Portrait of A.B. Frost byThomas Eakins
Born	(1851-01-17)January 17, 1851 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,U.S.
Died	June 22, 1928(1928-06-22)(aged 77) Pasadena, California,U.S.
Resting place	Laurel Hill Cemetery,Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Known for	Comics,graphic art,lithography,painting

Arthur Burdett Frost(January 17, 1851 – June 22, 1928), usually cited asA. B. Frost,was an American illustrator, graphic artist, painter and comics writer. He is best known for his illustrations ofBrer Rabbitand other characters in theJoel Chandler Harris'Uncle Remusbooks.

Frost's work is known for its dynamic representation of motion and sequence and for his realistic hunting, shooting and golfing prints. He illustrated over 90 books, produced hundreds of paintings and was a pioneer in the development ofcomic strips.He was admitted posthumously to theSociety of Illustrators' Hall of Fame in 1985.

Career

Frost was born January 17, 1851, inPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania,the eldest of ten children. His father, John Frost, was a historian, biographer and literature professor.At the age of fifteen, he worked as an intern at a local business that taught him engraving and lithography.He was mostly self taught but did study underThomas Eakinsat thePennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts,with Gilbert Tucker Margeson in Massachusetts and withWilliam Merritt Chaseat theShinnecock Hills Summer School of Art.In 1874 he was asked by a friend to illustrate a book of humorous short stories, "Out of the Hurly Burly", byCharles Heber Clark,which was a commercial success and launched his illustration career.

In 1875, he worked atThe Daily Graphic.In 1876, Frost joined the art department at the publisherHarper & Brothers,where he worked with well-known illustrators includingHoward Pyle,E. W. Kemble,Frederic RemingtonandC. S. Reinhart.He published illustrations in other magazines such asHarper's Weekly,PunchandScribner's.While there, he learned a wide variety of techniques, from cartooning to what later came to be calledphotorealisticpainting. He moved to London in 1877 to study art and work.He was one of the first American illustrators to have success in England when he worked on illustrations forMark TwainandCharles Dickens.He returned to Philadelphia and studied under paintersThomas EakinsandWilliam Merritt Chaseat thePennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.

In 1892, Frost partnered with Joel Chandler Harris and included his drawings ofUncle RemusandBrer Rabbitand other characters into the bookUncle Remus and His Friend.Frost and Harris published several additional versions of the Uncle Remus books includingUncle Remus: His Songs and Sayingsin 1895 and 1898.

Frost was influenced by the serial photography work ofEadward Muybridgeand translated his photographic approach to create successive illustration panels and dialogue which was a pioneering form ofcomic stripsandcomic books.In 1884, Frost publishedStuff and Nonsense,an anthology of his works that advanced the concept of time-stop drawings and contained other innovations. Although he was never published in newspapers, Frost's work was influential on newspaper comic strip illustrators such asRudolph DirksandJimmy Swinnerton.

Frost incorporated his interest in hunting, shooting and golf into multiple illustrations and publications. He was an avid golfer and a member of theMorris County Golf ClubinMorristown, New Jersey,during the initial uptake of the sport in the United States. His sketches of golf players focused on the drama and passion of the players set in detailed backgrounds. His golf illustrations were included inThe Golfer's Alphabet(1898),The Epic of Golf(1923) and on two covers ofCollier'smagazine.

He was a member of thePhiladelphia Sketch Club,theSociety of Independent Artistsand theSociety of Illustrators.

Personal life

A.B. Frost tombstone inLaurel Hill Cemetery

Frost married another artist, illustrator Emily Louise Phillips, in 1883.He lived atBoisaubin ManorinConvent Station, New Jerseyuntil 1908. From 1908 until May 1916, Frost and his family lived inParisto allow his children to study art. After his return to the United States, he lived in New Jersey and Pennsylvania and worked as an illustrator and comics artist, mainly forLifemagazine. In 1924, Frost moved toPasadena, Californiaand died there on June 22, 1928.He is interred atLaurel Hill Cemeteryin Philadelphia in Section C, plot 63.

Legacy

He was admitted posthumously into the Society of Illustration Hall of Fame in 1985.His depiction of Brer Rabbit from the Tales of Uncle Remus books was included on a commemorative stamp in 2001.

Gallery

• 
  A. B. Frost's first comic: a German attempts to pronounce English-language"th"sounds, December 1897
• 
  Our Cat Eats Rat Poison(titledFatal Mistakein later editions)
• 
  Brer Rabbit and the Tar Baby from the 1895 version ofUncle Remus: His Songs and Sayings
• 
  Rail Shooting, by A B Frost from Shooting Pictures, by Scribner & Sons (1895)
• 
  Front Cover ofThe Golfer's Alphabet(1898)
• 
  Illustration from Lewis Caroll'sRhyme? and Reason?
• 
  A 1921 illustration by Frost

Partial list of works

• Out of the Hurly Burly,illustrations (1874)
• Rhyme? And Reason?,byLewis Carroll(1883)
• Rudder Grange,byFrank R. Stockton(1885)
• A Tangled Tale,by Lewis Carroll (1885)
• Our Cat Eats Rat Poison(titledFatal Mistakein later editions) (July 1881 in Issue #374 Harper's Magazine)
• Stuff and Nonsense,anthology (1884)
• The Moral Piratesby W.L. Alden (1887)
• The Bull Calf and Other Tales,anthology (1892)
• Uncle Remus and His Friends,by Joel Chandler Harris (1892)
• The Story of a Bad BoybyThomas Bailey Aldrich(1895)
• Tom Sawyer, DetectivebyMark Twain(1896)
• The Associate Hermitsby Frank R. Stockton (1898)
• Uncle Remus: His Songs and His SayingsbyJoel Chandler Harris(1898)
• Sports and Games in the Open(1899)
• The Chronicles of Aunt Minervy Ann,by Joel Chandler Harris (1899)
• The Golfer's Alphabet,Harper & Brothers, New York and London, (1899)
• A Book of Drawings,P.F. Collier & Son, New York (1904)
• Carlo(1912)
• The Epic of Golf,by Clinton Scollard (1923)

External links

• Works by A. B. FrostatProject Gutenberg
• Works by or about A. B. FrostatInternet Archive
• Morristown: A.B. Frost Collection
• A. B. FrostatLibrary of Congress,with 229 library catalog records
• Bedford Fine Art Gallery: Arthur Burdett (A.B.) Frost