‘Sweetening the Hay’ ~ Frank O. Salisbury

Frank O. Salisbury

(1874-1962) British

‘Sweetening the Hay’ -A Harvest Celebration

Oil on canvas. 43 x 78 inches. Frame: 55 x 88 inches. Signed, and further titled, inscribed FRANK O. SALISBURY/62 avenue Rd/NW8, and with oil sketch of figure to verso.

Provenance: By descent from the artist Frank O. Salisbury.

Francis (“Frank”) Owen Salisbury was an English artist who specialised in portraits, large canvases of historical and ceremonial events, stained glass and book illustration. In his heyday he made a fortune on both sides of the Atlantic.

During his career he had seventy exhibits accepted for the annual Royal Academy Summer Exhibitions, from 1899 until 1943

Twenty-five members of the Royal House of Windsor sat for Salisbury and he was the first artist to paint HM Queen Elizabeth II. In 1919 he painted a mural for the Royal Exchange, London National Peace Thanksgiving Service on the steps of St Paul’s Cathedral, 6th July 1919.

He painted Winston Churchill on more occasions than any other artist; the two iconic images of Churchill – The Siren Suit and Blood, Sweat and Tears are both Salisbury images.

Other significant portraits include those of Richard Burton, Andrew Carnegie (posthumous), Sir Alan Cobham, Sir Robert Ludwig Mond, Maria Montessori, Montgomery of Alamein, Earl Mountbatten of Burma, Benito Mussolini, John Player, Lord Rank, Jan-Christiaan Smuts and Sir Henry Wood.

Salisbury was remarkably successful in the USA where he was deemed to have fulfilled the American Dream. He made thirteen visits, basing himself in Washington DC, Chicago and New York City where his portraiture would be a roll call of American wealth. He painted six Presidents with his Franklin D. Roosevelt remaining as the official White House portrait to this day. Industrial and financial giants who sat for him included Henry Clay Folger, Elbert Henry Gary, Edward Stephen Harkness, Will Keith Kellogg, Andrew William Mellon, John Pierpont Morgan, George Mortimer Pullman, John Davison Rockefeller Jr., and Myron C. Taylor.

Salisbury’s great forte was in his painting of over forty large canvases of historical and national events. The two most significant of these are The Heart of Empire – the Jubilee Thanksgiving in St Paul’s Cathedral 1935 and The Coronation of their Royal Majesties King George VI and Queen Elizabeth 1937.