Francis Job Short
Nationality: English
Date of birth: 1857.06.19
Place of birth: Wollaston,Worcestershire
Date of death: 1945.04.22
Category: printmaker, printer
Identity:
Frank Short was a master etcher, engraver and lithographer.
Life:
Frank Short had a major influence on his contemporaries and pupils at the Royal College of Art. His pupils there included Martin Hardie, etcher, watercolourist, author and scholar. Short revived the techniques of mezzotint and aquatint; he had a wide knowledge and skill in print-making and was largely responsible for the technical excellence of British print-making between the first and second world wars.
Short's atmospheric Nocturnes are the most obvious example of Whistler's influence on Short. Short worked with Whistler occasionally on printing his copperplates. Whistler, in his turn, respected him as a print-maker.
His collection included proofs by Haden, Whistler, Legros, and Samuel Palmer.
Bibliography:
Walkley, Giles, Artists' houses in London 1764-1914, Aldershot, 1994 ; Inventory & Valuation of the contents of 56, Brook Green London W6. The Residence of Professor Frank Short RA, PRE, 8-10 March 1920, National Art Library, London; Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford, 2004.
