Francis Speight

Francis Speight was born in North Carolina in 1896, the youngest son of a Baptist minister and farmer. After his service in WWI, he studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts from 1920 to 1925. Speight went on to teach at the Academy, first as an Assistant Instructor, then as a Full Instructor until 1961. He continued to teach at the Academy in the summer until 1976. Speight was known as a contemporary realist, a landscape painter of suburban Philadelphia, particularly the Schuylkill Valley and the mill towns of Manayunk and Conshohocken. Painting on location rather than in a studio, he travelled to his locations by trolley car or automobile, incorporating the gritty quality of life into his paintings. Despite being a prolific painter during the Depression, his paintings do not convey any social commentary. In 1936, Speight married fellow artist, Sarah Blakeslee, and in 1943 they moved from Manayunk to Doylestown where they lived until 1961. The Speights relocated to North Carolina so that Francis could serve as Artist in Residence at East Carolina University in Greenville.

Education and Training
Wake Forest College, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, 1915-1917
Corcoran School of Art, Washington, DC, 1920
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1920-1925

Teachers and Influences
Ida Poteat, art instructor, Wake Forest
Daniel Garber, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts

Connection to Bucks County
Speight was a resident of Castle Valley, Doylestown Township where he lived in a stone farmhouse on Almshouse Road with his wife, the artist Sarah Blakeslee, from 1943 until 1961.

Colleagues and Affiliations
Daniel Garber, co-faculty member, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
Sarah Blakeslee, wife

Major Solo Exhibitions
Philadelphia Art Alliance, Philadelphia, PA, 1952
Taggart, Jorgensen, Putnam Gallery, Washington, DC, 1986

Major Group Exhibitions
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, 1930
Connecticut Academy of Fine Arts, Hartford, Connecticut, 1932
Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 1928, 1930, 1932, 1935, 1937, 1939, 1941, 1943, 1945, 1951, 1957
National Academy of Design, New York, New York , 1927-1932, 1935, 1937-1944, 1948, 1950
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1926-1954, 1956, 1958, 1960, 1962, 1966
50th Anniversary Retrospective Art Exhibition, The Phillips Mill Community Association, New Hope, Pennsylvania , 1979
Sketch Club, Philadelphia, PA, 1938
Society of Washington Artists, Washington, DC, 1929

Major Collections
Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts
Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio
Encyclopedia Brittanica Collection
James A. Michener Art Museum, Doylestown, Pennsylvania
Memorial Art Gallery, Rochester, New York
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York
Montpelier Museum of Art, Montpelier, Vernont
National Academy of Design, New York, New York
Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, Florida
Palmer Museum of Art, Pennsylvania State University, State College, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Toronto Art Gallery, Toronto, Canada.
United States Post Office, Gastonia, North Carolina (WPA)
West Chester Art Center, West Chester, Pennsylvania

Teaching and Professional Appointments
Art Instructor, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1925-1976 (after 1961, summers only)
Artist in residence, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina, 1961
Delegate, Third National Convention, National Commission for UNESCO
Visiting Instructor at University of North Carolina, Shrivenham American Army University in England, Lehigh University and De Paul University

Major Awards
Cresson Traveling Scholarship, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 1923, 1925
Gold Medal, the Fellowship of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 1926
First Prize, Landscape, Society of Washington Artists, 1929
The Fellowship of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts Prize, 1930
First Hallgarten Prize, National Academy of Design, 1930
M.V. Kohnstamm Prize, Art Institute of Chicago, 1930
Landscape Prize. Connecticut Academy of Fine Arts, 1932
Third W.A. Clarke Prize, Corcoran Gallery of Art, 1937
Gold Medal, Philadelphia Sketch Club, 1938
Jennie Sesnan Gold Medal, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 1940
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Fellowship Prize, 1940
Second Altman Prize, Landscape, National Academy of Design, 1951
First Altman Prize Landscape, National Academy of Design, 1953
$1,000 Grant, National Institute of Arts and Letters, 1953
Orbrig Altman Prize, National Academy of Design, 1955

Affiliations and Memberships
Member, National Academy of Design, 1940