Francis Lee Jaques

Francis Lee Jaques (September 28, 1887 - July 24, 1969) was an American wildlife painter.

Jaques hunted and trapped bearing in mind his daddy and connected past editors and writers from major hunting magazines. While yet a teenager, Jacques paid ten dollars to buy a taxidermy shop in Aitkin, Minnesota. He toughed out a few winters scarcely earning plenty money to survive and bartering paintings to have the funds for services. He alternated railroad take action in northern Minnesota and taxidermy in Aitkin to make ends meet.

In 1918, Jaques was drafted into the army. During his six-month stay in St. Emilione, France, he recorded his surroundings in several small pencil drawings and watercolor paintings. He came house with a rank of Private First Class and returned to Duluth, Minnesota. There he met Clarence C. Rosenkranz, an artiste of the impressionist style, who helped him blend color and aerate his feelings through art.

In 1924, Jaques sent some of his paintings to the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. His aptitude was recognized, and he was invited to connect the museum's team as a background painter. The team traveled a propos the world accrual exhibit specimens. Jaques recorded his experiences throughout.

Jaques was concerning 40 years old bearing in mind he met Florence Page, a friend of his landlord. She was a budding writer just out of a prestigious bookish in the East, but was originally from Decatur, Illinois. Jaques and Florence found common ground in plants and developed a friendship. They were married in 1927.

Francis and Florence Page Jaques spent get older camping in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area of Minnesota. The become old provided inspiration for their now-famous books, Snowshoe Country and Canoe Country. Sales from these two books helped fund the Jaqueses' involvement in the conservation project at Susie Island in Lake Superior. The conservation Place was forward-thinking named The Francis Lee Jaques Memorial Preserve in his honor.

The Jaqueses lived in New York City for on height of 25 years before returning to Minnesota to decree at the James Ford Bell Museum of Natural History upon the University of Minnesota campus. Jaques worked designing and painting diorama backgrounds until his retirement.

The Jaqueses' final years were spent bustling in North Oaks, a few miles north of Saint Paul, Minnesota. Jaques painted daily and created a mountainous body of work. Upon his death Florence completed and established for broadcast of his biography, Francis Lee Jaques: Artist of the Wilderness World. She donated his enduring art works to the James Ford Bell Museum of Natural History in Minneapolis and to the Saint Louis County Historical Society, Duluth, Minnesota.

Frances Lee Jaques died July 24, 1969, at the age of 81. His wife, Florence Page Jaques, died January 1, 1972, at 82 years of age.