Francis Quirk's One-Man Show at the Women's City Club of Philadelphia

One thing we have learend about Francis Quirk is that he was prolific. As we have built our image library we have been amazed at how many paintings and images of his paintings have surfaced. They continue to emerge on a monthly basis. We have posted rather substantial preseentations of his work on slideshare and the production of an updated omnibus presentation is long overdue. The description of the paintings at a 1946 one man show lead us to conclude that there are many more waiting to be discovered. 

In 1946,  Quirk was 39 years old and teaching at Ogontz College, a prestigious school for girls. He was active in the Philadelphia art community.  And in February his one man show opened at the Women's City Club of Philadelphia. 

Philadelphia Inquirer Write up of Francis Quirk's one man show. 

The Philadelphia Inquirer covered the opening in its Sunday Arts Column describing Quirk as being "frequently represented at exhibitions" so he must have been actively promoting his work.  The exhibition consisted mostly of oils with protraits of boys reading, women and a military man.  He also included people painting in a landscape and a still life. We have only found one still life by Quirk, although he was adept at painting objects including plants in many of his portraits. 

The still life included two bits of Quirk humor. The first is the inclusion of an image of another  Quirk painting in the still life. He famously did this in his self-portrait of his painting of Edgar Lee Masters that is in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery. (You can see it and a discussion here.) The second was the nature of the painting reproduced in that it featured dogs near a car tire  and was entitled "Going for the Mail."  We have begun searching for the painting, but thus far, it has been fruitless.