Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Frost, George

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1047940Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 20 — Frost, George1889Lionel Henry Cust

FROST, GEORGE (1754–1821), landscape painter, son of a builder at Ousden in Suffolk, was originally brought up to his father's business. He subsequently obtained a confidential situation in the office of the Blue Coach at Ipswich, which he continued to hold for the greater part of his life. He had a natural and early love of drawing, and without any instruction from others succeeded in producing some very excellent works. He studied nature very closely, and drew picturesque buildings and landscapes with a masterly hand, showing both originality and truth. He was a devoted admirer and imitator of Gainsborough, and possessed some paintings and drawings by him, notably ‘The Mall,’ of which he executed a careful copy when in his seventy-seventh year. He was also an intimate friend of John Constable, R.A. His situation at Ipswich caused him to confine his subjects to that town and its neighbourhood, and he is little known elsewhere. He died on 28 June 1821, in his seventy-eighth year, after a painful illness.

[Gent. Mag. 1821, xci. 89; Redgrave's Dict. of Artists.]

L. C.