Frank Bicknell has traditionally held the honor of having the shortest biography among all the Old Lyme Art Colony artists. No photograph was thought to exist; no one could identify the source of his rumored personal wealth. His output, his American Barbizon landscapes, his Impressionist forest floors dotted with mountain laurel, his highly-keyed views of the Monhegan coast pounded smooth by the ocean – served as bits of visual biography in place of textual evidence.

In 2002, Mrs. Elizabeth Magee Cloutier, through great personal effort, self-published a work of amateur biography that relies heavily on Bicknell’s lost scrapbook, located with the descendants of Charles Graham Gibbs, Bicknell’s partner and closest friend. The scrapbook is a remarkable construct of personal history, more a commonplace book than anything, and completes Bicknell’s biographical portrait.

Bicknell was born in Augusta, Maine on February 17 th, 1866. His father, James Austin Bicknell, a prominent member of the Augusta community and successful entrepreneur, served in the state legislature and was appointed postmaster of Augusta in 1861 by President Lincoln. James Bicknell was a connected man. James G. Blaine (1830-1893), the influential United States Senator, Secretary of State in two administrations, and eventual (albeit failed) presidential candidate, accepted the elder Bicknell’s invitation to become Frank’s godfather. Blaine owed a great deal of his political success to James Bicknell’s financial support, especially his assistance in helping Blaine purchase a share of the Kennebec Journal, which provided Blaine with an influential pulpit.

Frank Bicknell, the youngest son of a prosperous and established family, enjoyed the freedom to pursue an inherent interest in art. His second cousin, the artist Albion H. Bicknell (1837-1915) was a resident of Malden, Massachusetts and when Frank Bicknell’s family relocated to present-day Brockton in 1870, Frank found himself with a mentor who would direct and encourage the first phase of his artistic career. Albion Bicknell associated with William Morris Hunt (1824-1879), Elihu Vedder (1835-1923), Joseph Cole (1837-1892), and John La Farge (1835-1910). When James Bicknell died in 1881, Albion offered Frank a home, studio space, and access to a coterie of men who had all achieved fame with the brush.