Francine "Franke" DuBevoise
2001 Honored Member

As the new century advances, the Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club's members are ever more aware and proud of the richness of our history. It's fitting, therefore, that this year's honored artist should be the club's historian, Francine DeBevoise. In addition to preserving and cataloging the club's history, Franke is an acclaimed portrait painter, a vocation in which she preserves and celebrates the faces of those who populate a portion of contemporary history.

 

Franke with triptych
“Inter-Tribal Dance”, Oil, 48” x 78”

 

Her portraits, in addition to being artfully painted, draw attention to the personality and interest of the sitter with settings appropriate to the work. Franke's works have a quiet dignity and warmth that is characteristic of the artist herself.

For thirty years, Franke's portrait paintings have been accepted in highly competitive juried exhibitions.In New York, she has shown with Allied Artists of America, the American Artists Professional League and the Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club.

In New Jersey, where she lives in the town of Lebanon, she has exhibited at the Hunterdon Museum of Art in Clinton. She has won many Best in Show and First Place awards. The Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club awarded her its Anna Hyatt Huntington Bronze Medal in 1975 and both the Horse's Head Trophy for best painting in 1983 and the Creative Hands Award in 1987. She is an exhibiting member of the National Arts Club and a life member of the Art Students League.

Her solo exhibits include a year 2000 exhibition "Powwows & Portraits" featuring twenty native American paintings and ten other portraits at Georgia Court College in Lakewood, New Jersey. The native American series was started after a trip to New Mexico in 1992 where Franke and her husband attended a Memorial Day powwow and found a new passion. The DeBevoises traveled the East Coast powwow trail through New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee.

The paintings are a celebration of the American Indian culture. Their verve, joy and energy celebrate the individuality and personality of the performers. Some are individual portraits in full native garb while others are genre, filled with figures performing ritualistic dances.

Other solo exhibits in New Jersey were at Lebanon Township Museum in New Hampton; Johnson &
Johnson Corporate Headquarters in New Brunswick, and Ortho Pharmaceutical Corporation in Somerset.

“Ottawa Traditional Dancer”, Oil, 36” x 30”

 

“Leader of teh Dance”, Oil, 30” x 24”

 

 

“At the Metropolitan”, Oil, 16” x 20”

In 1994, her portrait of Dr. Richard A Detweiler, president of her alma mater Hartwick College, was unveiled at the college. Recent commissions feature portraits of Judge James C. Hogan, Judge of Common Pleas, Easton, Pennsylvania; Franklin S. Van Antwerpern, United States District Judge for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, and Judge John F. Kingfield of the New Jersey Superior Court in Belvedere. Again these works emphasize the, humanity, dignity and accomplishments of her subjects.

“Judge James C. Hogan”
 Oil, 42” x 34”

 

“Judge Franklin S. Van Antwerpern”
Oil, 42” x 34”

 

Her portraits of young people show them at the threshold of adult life, relaxed, gazing confidently forward. Portraits of older people show their maturity and serenity. All of Franke's work captures a spirit of life and a connection between artist and sitter.

Franke has served on the Board of Directors of the Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club from 1981 to 1989 and from 1992 to the present. As the Club Historian, she has researched and documented the club's long history, its namesake Catharine Lorillard Wolfe and the relationship of the club to Grace Church. She has collected articles and reviews relating to club members, present and past.

 

 

“Lucinda”, Oil, 36” x 28”

 

“Kirstie”, Oil, 34” x 27”

 

For the archives, she has made lists of large monuments, public commissions and museum acquisitions of work done by club members. She, who captures the life, the history and humanity of her subjects has also organized and indexed the history and accomplishments of the members of the Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club.

 

Honored Members
 

1979 Sally Swan Carr
1983 Diana Kan
1985 Carey Boone Nelson
1990 Adrienne Potter
1991 Marilyn Newmark
1993 Sybil D'Orsi
1994 Lucille Hampton
1995 Lucille Stillma
1997 Beverly Bender
1998 Mary Lou Ferbert
1999 Dorothy Dallas
2000 Virginia Abbot

 

2001 Francine “Franke” DeBevoise
2002 Inge Jannen Heus
2003 Jean Kroeber
2004 Eleanor Tyndall Meier
2005 Ruth B. Reiber
2006 Elaine Lavalle
2007 Lucille Berrill Paulsen
2008 Gaile Snow Gibbs
2009 Amy Bright Unfried
2010 Mary Maran
2011 Gabriela G. Delosso

 

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