Fraser family of artists
The Frasers of Huntingdonshire, of Scottish origin and emerging initially from the town of Bedford in the latter part of the nineteenth century, were a family of artists, known largely for their watercolour paintings, the predominant subject matter of which was the rural landscape of The Fens.
[1] Six of the group were the sons of an army surgeon, Major Robert Winchester Fraser (1819–1892) and his wife Mary Ann Anderson (1820–1898), who married in 1842 and produced a total of nine children.
He was a prolific illustrator; notable publications with his drawings include Great Expectations (Chapman and Hall, 1871), King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table by Henry Frith (George Routledge, 1884), Mark Twain's Roughing It and The Innocents At Home (Chatto & Windus, 1897),[4] A Hero.
The younger son, Francis Gordon Fraser (1879–1931) "was probably the most prolific, yet least recorded member of the famous Huntingdonshire family of landscape painters" (Jeremy Wood, Hidden Talents).
[2]: p117 His huge output was driven by penury and it would seem that many of his paintings were hurriedly completed, though there are a few in circulation of a higher standard and with greater attention to detail.
[6] His distinctive work, which often has an almost photographic quality, is usually signed W. F. Garden; he may have adopted this version of his name not only to distinguish it from the rest of his family, but also to confuse creditors.
William Andrew Baird Grove, in his booklet The Frasers – A Local Family of Artists (1980) describes George Gordon's work as "a wide variety of Fen scenes of painstaking detail and accuracy, no longer fashionable in today's art.
[2]: p54 Besides following his older brothers into the uncertain life of an artist, Arthur Anderson Fraser (1861–1904) was also an enthusiastic participant in the Neo-Jacobite Revival,[6] founding a "White Cockade" club at the Ferry Boat Inn at Holywell.
His work is either signed by name or by the use of a small monogram joining the letters A and F.[2] Gilbert Baird Fraser (1865–1947) was the youngest and longest surviving member of the artistic family, outliving all his brothers and Robert Winchester’s sons.
[8] He lived with his wife May Heseltine at Reed Cottage in Holywell, Cambridgeshire, creating a considerable body of work, much of it with a somewhat warmer palette of colour than other family members.
