one of my four favorite painters...R.Atkinson Fox

My Great Granny and Grandad Wilkes...on their farm in Shropshire, England . You can see the vines of the rambling rose bush all around the cottage door.




Back in the early decades of the 1900's, most middle class Americans adorned their walls with prints by R. (for Robert) Atkinson Fox. Later generations considered them old fashioned. Many turned up in the windows of thrift shops, or antique shops as families got rid of their grandmother's pictures to replace them with more modern looking ones. Now, the pendulum has swung back... Fox prints are eagerly collected and since the mid 1980's prices are rising...a sure sign of a hot collectable.
My collection of R. Atkinson Fox prints started when I saw a framed print of his of an English cottage, with wonderful informal gardens painted in vivid yellow and reds and blues. I had to have it!



My mom was born in Shropshire, England, on a farm, with a large cottage that had ivy, and rambling rose bushes growing all over the sides of the brick walls... only the leaded glass windows, and doors were left uncovered. It was situated on the hilly open fields by the Welsh border. When I visited the place of her birth, now, with my Uncle living there, I fell in love with the storybook image of it.
My Uncle Ron had kept up the rambling gardens of years past. My Great Granny and Grandad Wilkes were gardeners and took great pride in their flowers. Their gardens were like an English postcard. When I saw the Fox print on the wall of a consignment shop in Medina. I had to have it! He had captured my memory... of the feel of England... in a picture.

Fox was born in Toronto, Canada, in 1860, but immigrated to the United States somewhere between 1885 and 1890. A prolific painter, he worked as an artist both in Toronto and in the United States and appears to have enjoyed great commercial success during his lifetime. He worked for various publishers, including Brown and Bigelow of St. Paul, Minnesota, Edward Gross & Co. of New York, Master Art Publishers, Chicago, The Red Wing Advertising Company, and the Thomas D. Murphy Co. of Red Oak, Iowa among others.
His subjects ranged from landscapes, probably the most collectable today... to houses, gardens, portraits, Indians, ships, animals (horses, dogs, sheep, bears and foxes) and historic figures such as Washington, Lafayette, Franklin and Theodore Roosevelt. So far 400 Fox prints have been documented, with undoubtedly more to come.
Fox prints appeared on calendars and advertisements for railroads; some were done by framing companies. They showed up on postcards, puzzles, and even in the 1913 edition of the Farmers Homestead Almanac.
Fox was a talented and facile painter. He frequently painted from memory, aided by sketches, sometimes finishing a painting in a day's time. According to the research done on his work, many of his original paintings were oil on canvas.
Although many of his prints bear the signature R. Atkinson Fox, you will find many unsigned and untitled ones, due to the croppings of the print when framing it. Fox used pseudonyms as well. Perhaps he was unhappy with the way a painting turned out. Then sometimes the publisher insisted he use another name.
Fox married Anna Gaffney in 1903. They lived in New Jersey until about 1924, when he moved his family to Chicago and continued his work until his death in 1935 at the 74. Five of his eight children still survive and many of his paintings are still in their hands, as well as with private individuals.
I have heard many people say that Fox copied Maxfield Parrish,( my third favorite artist) I don't agree. Although they were artists and illustrators during the same era, they had different styles and techniques. Fox was also the more prolific painter, with more than 400 pieces already documented.

I always have my eye open to add to my collection... but now I have to pay a lot more money for one!