Artist

Frank Blackwell Mayer

born Baltimore, MD 1827-died Annapolis, MD 1899
Media - portrait_image_113230.jpg - 90159
Courtesy Minnesota Historical Society.
Also known as
  • Francis Blackwell Mayer
  • F. B. Mayer
Born
Baltimore, Maryland, United States
Died
Annapolis, Maryland, United States
Active in
  • Paris, France
Nationalities
  • American
Biography

Born in Maryland. Known for his large collection of life studies of Native Americans and as a painter of colonial subjects.

Nora Panzer, ed. Celebrate America in Poetry and Art (New York and Washington, D.C.: Hyperion Paperbacks for Children in association with the National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, 1994)

Luce Artist Biography

Frank Blackwell Mayer was born into a life of privilege. His father was a lawyer who represented Baltimore in the Maryland State Senate, and his mother was the daughter of a merchant ship captain. Mayer established the Artists Association of Maryland and remained active in Baltimore’s art community throughout his career. He lived in Paris during the Civil War, returning home to discover that the war had destroyed the city’s art community and sapped his family’s finances. In December 1876 he bought a house in Annapolis and hung a sign above the door bearing the motto: “He lives best who lives well in obscurity.” (Page, “Francis Blackwell Mayer,” The Magazine Antiques, February 1976)