The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (177 page)

Frink , Dame Elisabeth
(1930–93).
British sculptor and graphic artist. Some of her early work—influenced by
Giacometti
—was angular and menacing. During the 1960s her figures—typically horses and riders or male nudes—became smoother, but she retained a feeling of the bizarre in the polished goggles that feature particularly in her over-life-size heads. She worked mainly in bronze and had numerous public commissions, for example
Horse and Rider
(1975) in Piccadilly, London, made for Trafalgar House Investments Ltd.
Frith , William Powell
(1819–1909).
English painter. He began with illustrative paintings of classics such as
The Vicar of Wakefield
, but
c.
1851 he turned to contemporary scenes, with which he had a great commercial success. His crowded, anecdote-packed pictures of Victorian life, among them
Derby Day
(Tate, London, 1858) and
The Railway Station
(Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, Egham, 1862), are among the most familiar images of their age. Frith's
Reminiscences
(1887) and
Further Reminiscences
(1888) form a useful record of the conservative academic conception of art and of contemporary gossip.
Froment , Nicolas
(active
c.
1450–
c.
1490).
French painter, born at Uzès in Languedoc and active in Avignon. Two documented works by him—both
triptychs
—survive:
The Raising of Lazarus
(Uffizi , Florence, 1461) and
The Burning Bush
(Aix-en-Provence Cathedral, 1476). They show that with
Charonton
he introduced Netherlandish naturalism to French art. His figures have strong if sometimes clumsy expressions and gestures, while his draperies have a characteristic angularity reminiscent of some of the works of the Spanish and German followers of Rogier van der
Weyden
.
Fromentin , Eugène
(1820–76).
French painter and writer. As a painter he was a specialist in oriental themes (he visited North Africa in 1846, 1848, and 1852), which were much admired in his day but are now known only to specialists. His reputation now rests on his book
Les Maîtres d'autrefois
(
The Masters of Past Time
, 1876), a study of Dutch and Belgin painting. He also wrote a lyrical novel,
Dominique
(1862).
Fronte Nuovo Delle Arti
(New Art Front)
.
An association of Italian artists founded in 1946 with the aim of combating the pessimism of the post-war world and advocating a return to an art concerned with human values.
Birolli
and
Guttuso
were the best-known figures in the group, which combined artists of very different styles and ideologies. The split between Abstractionists and Realists led to the dissolution of the association in 1948.

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