Frank W. Benson (1862-1951), Flying Woodcock

Lot 39

About Seller

20 Winter Street
Pembroke, MA 02359
United States

Founded in 2005, Copley Fine Art Auctions is a boutique auction house specializing in antique decoys and American, sporting, and wildlife paintings. Over the course of the last two decades, the firm has set auction records for not only individual decoy makers, but also entire carving regions. Copley...Read more

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About Auction

The Winter Sale 2026, Day 1 by Copley Fine Art Auctions

Live

The Winter Sale 2026, Day 1

By Copley Fine Art Auctions

Feb 20, 2026

Set Reminder 2026-02-20 10:00:00 2026-02-20 10:00:00 America/New_York Bidsquare Bidsquare : The Winter Sale 2026, Day 1 https://www.bidsquare.com/auctions/copley/the-winter-sale-2026-day-1-22120 Lots 1-300 Copley Fine Art Auctions cinnie@copleyart.com

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Lot Description

Frank W. Benson (1862-1951)
Flying Woodcock
signed "F.W. Benson" lower left
watercolor, 19 by 24 in.

Frank Weston Benson, one of the Ten American Painters and a leading influence in the Boston School of American Impressionism, was born in Salem, Massachusetts, on March 24, 1862. In his youth, Benson was a gifted athlete and excelled at boxing, sailing, and tennis. Growing up along the extensive marshes surrounding his native Salem, Benson learned to hunt and fish at an early age.

Benson loved nature and birds in particular. He wanted to combine his love for birds and art by pursuing a career as an ornithological illustrator in the manner of John James Audubon. As a child, he spent many hours at the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard. Benson's mother, herself a painter, encouraged him in this pursuit.

In 1880 he enrolled at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. He studied with the school's founding teachers, Otto Grundmann and Frederick Crowninshield. Willard Metcalf, Edmund C. Tarbell, and Joseph Lindon Smith were among his classmates. Benson learned quickly and was recognized as a particularly gifted student. In 1882, while still attending classes at the Museum School, Benson began to teach free evening drawing classes in Salem.

In 1885 Benson rented a painting studio in Salem. He began to exhibit at the Boston Art Club and the National Academy of Design in New York, receiving much critical acclaim and numerous awards. After his marriage to Ellen Peirson in 1888, he taught at the Boston Museum School with his friend Edmund Tarbell intermittently until 1930. By 1898, Benson was recognized as a gifted teacher, a sought-after portraitist, and a painter of wide-ranging subjects. He would later earn the title of "America's Most Medaled Painter."

In this work, with its beautiful bright colors, Benson shows both his dedication to ornithology and his ability to perfectly capture a woodcock in flight, one of the hardest birds to render properly.

Provenance: Private Collection, New York

Condition

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