 Fanny Van de Grift Osbourne is primarily known as Frances Van de Grift Osbourne
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This biography from the Archives of AskART:
| | Born in Indianapolis, IN on March 10, 1840. “Fanny” wed Sam Osbourne in 1857. In the 1860s she made the trip across the Isthmus of Panama to join her husband in a mining camp in Nevada. In 1866 the couple moved to San Francisco and three years later settled in East Oakland. When the San Francisco School of Design opened in 1874, she and her daughter, Isobel, were two of the first pupils. She advanced quickly under Virgil Williams' guidance and, while at that school, won a silver medal for her drawing of Venus de Milo. Leaving behind a broken marriage, she and her three children sailed for Europe in 1875 for further art study. In Grez (an artist's colony in France), she met Robert Louis Stevenson whom she married in San Francisco in 1880. They traveled through the Napa Valley to Mount St Helena and honeymooned at the abandoned Silverado mine bunkhouse. The couple moved to Samoa in 1890. After the death of her husband in 1894, Fanny remained in Samoa for a few more years and then returned to San Francisco. Here she engaged Willis Polk to build a large home at 2319 Hyde where she entertained the literati of the day. Considered very eccentric, she wore flowing Polynesian gowns, was top heavy with brocade and jewelry, and often had a cigarette dangling from her lips. Living with her on Hyde Street was her "secretary" Ned Field who was 40 years younger than she. Fanny became reliant upon spiritual mediums and often held seances in the house. In 1908 she sold the home and moved to Santa Barbara where she remained until her death on Feb. 18, 1914. Exh: SFAA, 1878. In: Silverado Museum (St Helena, CA). | Source:
Edan Hughes, "Artists in California, 1786-1940"
Life of Mrs. Robert Louis Stevenson by Nellie Van De Grift Sanchez (NY: Scribner's, 1925); Heritage West, Oct. 1983; Theodore Wores, Artist in Search of the Picturesque; SF Examiner, 7-29-1984. | | Nearly 20,000 biographies can be found in Artists in California 1786-1940 by Edan Hughes and is available for sale ($150). For a full book description and order information please click here. |
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