The life of Frank Clark Bromley is one of those cases in history where an artist of exceptional talent and great promise is lost to us through an early death.

The artist was born in Eureka, Wisconsin, May 30, 1859, the son of Lester R. and Frances H. Bromley. His father was a lithographer and his grandfather, William Bromley, was an associate of the British Royal Academy who was noted for engraving the Elgin marbles for the British Museum.

The early education of Frank Bromley was obtained locally, and by 1870 the family moved to Chicago. While attending the Chicago High School, he entered his work in 1873 in the Vienna International Exposition where he won a First School Prize for drawing. Graduating from high school at the age of sixteen, Bromley then spent several years - 1875 to 1877 - studying in Chicago with Henry Elkins, who at that time was noted as a great landscape painter.

Early in 1880 Bromley was one of a number of artists - Elkins and others - who formed the Vincennes Gallery of Art in Chicago. Their purpose was "to establish a permanent gallery for the exhibition and sale of oil paintings and also provide a temporary home for artists who happened in the city." Later that same year the artist left for Paris for further study under Jean-Louis Meissoner and Edouard Yon. In 1882 Bromley had his painting "The Riverbank of the Tamise" accepted for exhibit at the annual Paris Salon, one of the youngest American artists to ever accomplish that feat.

Returning home in 1883, the artist became an accepted part of the local Chicago art community in addition to giving classes at his studio in the Adams Express Building. For the remaining years of his life the artist was known to have traveled extensively, including trips to Niagra Falls in 1883 where he was commissioned to do his largest work - a 6' by 10' canvas for the Michigan Central Railroad. In 1885 he submitted another large work "Coast of France at La Vielette" to the New Orleans "World's Industrial and Cotton Exposition" for which he was award a gold medal. He was also known to have traveled to France between 1887 and 1889. In addition, he was a member of the Society of Western Artists.

In the spring of 1890, while visiting his parents in Toledo, Ohio, the artist was stricken with "quick comsumption" - now known as tuberculosis of the lungs - and died there on May 16 of that year.

The above information was submitted to AskArt by Edward Bentley, art collector and researcher from Lansing, Michigan.