Francis Millet in 1910
Francis Davis Millet was the son of the doctor Asa Millet and his wife Hulda Allen Byram. He was born on 3 November 1846 in Mattapoisett, Massachusetts. Most sources give his date of birth as November 3, 1846, but a diary which he kept during his military service stated that November 3, 1864 was his 16th birthday, indicating birth in 1848.
Early life & career[]
Frank, as he was called, was a drummer boy in the Union forces during the Civil War, aiding his father, a war surgeon. He was 15 years old at the time. He later studied modern languages and literature at Harvard University, where he graduated with a Master of Arts degree in 1869.
After college he went to the Boston Daily Advertiser to work as a correspondent at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition; later he worked for the local as a reportor and editor for the section of the Boston Courier. He made it to the editor of the Boston Saturday Evening Gazette. At the same time he took lessons in lithography from D. C. Fabronius.
He worked as a reporter and editor for the Boston Courier and then as a correspondent for the Advertiser at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition. He graduated from Harvard with a Master of Arts degree.
In 1871 he went to the Royal Academy in Antwerp, where he studied painting under Jozef van Lerius and Nicaise de Keyser. He repeatedly pointed to his experience working for his father as giving him an appreciation for the vivid blood red that he frequently used in his early paintings. He was the first student to win a silver medal in his first year;
In 1873 he became secretary to Charles Francis Adams, head of the Massachusetts Commission, and accompanied him to the 1873 World's Fair in Vienna. During the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78 he was a correspondent for the London Daily News and Graphic and the New York Herald. He was decorated by Russia and Romania for his bravery under fire and his services to the wounded.On his return he was appointed a United States member of the International Art Jury at the 1878 Paris Exposition.
In 1879 he married Elizabeth "Lily" Greely Merrill in Paris Montmartre. Mark Twain and Augustus Saint-Gaudens were his best man. Millet and Saint-Gaudens moved in the same artistic circles and had first met in Rome in 1873-74, and thereafter together with John LaFarge painted the frescoes for Trinity Church in Boston in 1876-77. The Millet couple had four children: Edwin Abbey Millet (named after Edwin Austin Abbey), Katherine Field Millet, Laurence Frederick Millet and John Alfred Parsons Millet. Edwin died shortly after birth in 1881.
Millet became a member of the Society of American Artists in 1880. In 1885, he was elected as a member of the National Academy of Design, New York and as Vice-Chairman of the Fine Arts Committeehe was made a trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and sat on the advisory committee of the National Gallery of Art.
Portrait of Frank Millet by his contemporary, author and illustrator George Du Maurier, from Harper's New Monthly Magazine for June 1889
He was decorations director for the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893, with claims he invented the first form of compressed air spraypainting to apply whitewash to the buildings, but the story may be apocryphal as contemporary journals note spraypainting had already been in use since the early 1880s. His career included work on a number of worlds' fairs, including Vienna, Chicago, Paris, and Tokyo, where he made contributions as a juror, administrator, mural painter/decorator, and adviser.
A noted sculptor and designer, Millet designed the 1907 Civil War Medal at the request of the U.S. Army and United States War Department and the 1908 Spanish Campaign Medal. He executed the ceiling of the Call Room of the US Custom House at Baltimore, Maryland. In 1908 Frank Millet was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 1910 he co-founded the American Federation of Arts and the National Commission of Fine Arts. He later became director of the American Academy in Rome.
A noted sculptor and designer, Millet designed the 1907 Civil War Medal at the request of the U.S. Army and United States War Department and the 1908 Spanish Campaign Medal. He executed the ceiling of the Call Room of the US Custom House at Baltimore, Maryland.
Friends and acquaintences[]
Millet was close friends with Augustus Saint-Gaudens and Mark Twain, both of whom attended his 1879 wedding to Elizabeth ("Lily") Greely Merrill in Paris, France; Twain was Millet's best man. The couple had four children: Kate, Edwin, Laurence, and John.
Millet was acquainted with the famed American portraitist John Singer Sargent, who often used Millet's daughter Kate as a model. He was also close to the esteemed Huxley family.
Millet lived with Major Archibald Butt, who called him "my artist friend who lives with me", in a large mansion at 2000 G Street NW. They were known for throwing spartan but large parties that were attended by members of Congress, justices of the Supreme Court, and President Taft himself.
Millet boarded on April 10, 1912 as a passenger of the RMS Titanic on the return voyage from Rome to the USA. He took cabin E-38, and was often seen with his friend Major Archibald Butt.
Millet was last seen helping women and children into lifeboats. He died in the sinking, as did his close friend Major Butt. His body was recovered after the sinking by the cable boat Mackay-Bennett and returned to East Bridgewater, Massachusetts, where he was buried in Central Cemetery.
Memorials[]
In 1913, the Butt-Millet Memorial Fountain was erected in Washington, D.C., in memory of Millet and his long-time friend Archibald W. Butt, with whom he shared a home. A bronze bust in Harvard University's Widener Library also memorializes Millet.
In 2015, his murals were exhibited in Cleveland Ohio.
Bibliography[]
- The Danube from the Black Forest to the Black Sea (1892)
- The Capillary Crime and Other Stories (1892)
- The Expedition to the Philippines (1899)