Existing comment:
Thomas Fransioli
St. Andrew's Church, Roanoke, Virginia, 1951
Trained as an architect at the University of Pennsylvania, Seattle-born Fransioli lived in New York and Virginia during the 1930s, later working with John Russell Pope on installation plans for the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. This experience sparked a deep interest in painting. Essentially self-taught, Fransioli continued to paint throughout the remainder of his life, spent largely in Boston. This haunting regional scene -- suggestive of a "magic realism" style -- was likely drawn from memories of his time in Virginia. |