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Frank Harmon Myers

American, 1899 - 1956

BiographyBorn in Cleves, OH on Feb. 23, 1899. In 1917 Myers became a pupil of Duveneck and Weis at the Cincinnati Art Academy followed by training at the PAFA and in France at the School of Fine Arts at Fontainebleau. While on summer vacation in 1926, he first visited the Monterey Peninsula where he painted scenes of the Pacific. He was a member of the faculty at the Cincinnati Art Academy for 23 years and active in Taos, NM before making his final move to Pacific Grove, CA in 1940. There he built a studio-home on Crest Avenue. Early in his career he painted landscapes and portraits; after moving to California, his subject, except on rare occasions, was the ocean á la Frederick Waugh. He was a vital force in the Monterey Peninsula art world for 16 years, teaching and serving on art juries. He died in San Francisco on March 7, 1956. Posthumously, he was given the City and County of San Francisco Award. Member: Cincinnati Art Club; MacDowell Society; Carmel AA (pres. 1953); SWA. Exh: Cincinnati Museum, 1917-40; PAFA, 1920 (1st prize); Ohio State Fair, 1923 (1st prize); Maxwell Gallery (SF), 1937; De Young Museum, 1945, 1958 (memorial); Calif. State Fair, 1952 (1st prize); Lodi Art Annual, 1952 (1st prize); Oakland Art Gallery, 1953 (silver medal); Carmel Museum, 1968-72; Cincinnati Museum, 1988 (retrospective). In: Cincinnati Women's Club; Cincinnati Children's Hospital; University of Cincinnati; Hughes High School (Cincinnati); San Jose State College; New Mexico Museum (Santa Fe); NMAA; Oakland Museum; Irvine (CA) Museum; Monterey Court House; Monterey Peninsula Museum.
marine and landscape painter, Frank Myers was born in Cleves, Ohio, and died in Pacific Grove, California. He studied at the Cincinnati Academy with Frank Duveneck and at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts with Daniel Garber and Joseph Pearson.

He visited Monterey, California in 1926, Santa Fe New Mexico in 1932 and 1933 and in 1940 settled in Pacific Grove near Monterey.
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The following is from Harrie Grondijs

Ohio born Frank H. Myers enrolled at the Cincinnati Art Academy in 1917, studying with Frank Duveneck (1848-1919) and John E. Weis (1892-1962), and later, at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. In 1925, Myers married Ella Price, a young school teacher. They spent their honeymoon in Europe, staying in Paris and taking trips throughout Spain. The following year, they made an extended trip west, to Colorado and California, and on their return, spent several weeks in Santa Fe and Taos, where he met Joseph Henry Sharp (1859-1953).

Myers's work includes portraits as well as landscapes and urban scenes. His early paintings show a strong sense of realism handled in a bold and expressive brush stroke, and at other times, he produced brightly colored works showing his keen interest in French Impressionism. Gradually, he developed a strong sense of abstract design and in the late 1920s, he produced a number remarkably advanced paintings in an analytical style bordering on abstraction.

In the late 1930s, Myers's interest increasingly turned to painting the ocean. At the same time, his health began to falter and for no apparent reason, he experienced bouts of depression. In 1940, he took what was to be a year's leave of absence and moved to Monterey. Captivated by the beauty of the California coast, he remained the rest of his life. Thereafter, his work was almost exclusively seascapes, with an occasional portrait commission.

A well-respected leader of the Carmel-Monterey art community, Myers served as president of the Carmel Art Association, in 1953. His painting companions included Armin C. Hansen (1886-1957) and Donald Teague (born 1897), and together they defined the Monterey art scene for many years. After several years of recurring health problems, Frank Myers died of a heart attack on March 7, 1956.

Myers paintings are in the National Museum of American Art in Washington D. C., the Museum of New Mexico, the University of Cincinnati, and at the Irvine Museum.

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