Frank Clifford Ashford Gallery

Frank Clifford Ashford Gallery Frank Clifford Ashford from Brown County, South Dakota was a renowned portrait artist in the first half of 1900. His work is scattered all across the U.S. Mr.

He has been largely forgotten since his death in 1960. Do you have one of his paintings? Because Frank C. Ashford was largely forgotten after his death, little is known about the value of his work. A couple times per year, one of his paintings will appear on an auction website. Auctioneers tell us they often sell from between $500 and $1,000, depending on size of course. Ashford lived in many part

s of the U.S., France and Italy. He traveled to where he could find work. He painted many portraits every where he went. He made a living selling portraits, but enjoyed farm scene and landscape painting as well. If you have a painting by Mr. Ashford, it could be signed as Frank Ashford, Frank C. Ashford, Frank Clifford Ashford, F.C. Ashford, and in a couple rare circumstances he signed as Clifford Ashford. And, unfortunately, some were unsigned. Ashford died suddenly in Aberdeen, South Dakota of a heart attack in 1960. He never stopped painting and was approximately 81 years old when he died. His portrait work has ensured that many of his paintings hang in court houses, state capitals, universities and churches. You just need to look. He became most famous after painting President Calvin Coolidge and the First Lady when the White House was located in the Black Hills of South Dakota in the late 1920s. The point of this site is to provide as accurate of an account of his life and work as possibly known. Unfortunately we are bit late to the game and most people who actually knew Frank have passed on as well. It is our hope to locate more of his work and find more people who either collect his work, or know about paintings in their community.

07/08/2025
Great gallery.
06/04/2025

Great gallery.

Have you seen this 1914 oil painting by Frank Clifford Ashford? We would like to obtain it for our collection. If you ha...
02/08/2025

Have you seen this 1914 oil painting by Frank Clifford Ashford? We would like to obtain it for our collection. If you have any knowledge of its whereabouts, please message us here. Our records indicate it was sold by Strack's Auction in Hales Corners, WI in 2016.

Does anyone know who this might be? It could have been painted in the 1950s by Frank. Maybe the last name is Scott? Let ...
12/17/2022

Does anyone know who this might be? It could have been painted in the 1950s by Frank. Maybe the last name is Scott? Let us know. Message page if you recognize this woman or comment below. Thanks!

We have a couple floral still lifes in our digital gallery by Frank Ashford. This one came to us from the Henry Art Gall...
07/24/2022

We have a couple floral still lifes in our digital gallery by Frank Ashford. This one came to us from the Henry Art Gallery at the University of Washington in Seattle, WA. The date is not known, however, based on his Yellow Chrysanthemums painting, it may have been done around 1916.

Frank Ashford painted several vase/flower still lifes. The year of this painting has not yet been determined. It was found at the University of Washington's

We discovered two paintings by Frank Ashford tucked away at the Henry Art Museum in Seattle. The folks there were kind e...
07/24/2022

We discovered two paintings by Frank Ashford tucked away at the Henry Art Museum in Seattle. The folks there were kind enough to photograph them and allow us to use them on our website. Take a look!

Frank Ashford is said to have entered a "French Peasant" phase of his career and began painting street people in Paris, or was inspired by literary works (see

Susan Juanita Fossum was one of the first persons to be painted by Frank Ashford upon his return to Aberdeen in 1927. By...
03/31/2022

Susan Juanita Fossum was one of the first persons to be painted by Frank Ashford upon his return to Aberdeen in 1927. By this time in his career he was a celebrated artist and folks lined up to have their portrait done. He painted this in April 1927 and it’s unique for two reasons. One, it’s a full body portrait, and two, it’s massive, 50 inches tall by 40 inches wide. Fossum was a student at Norther State Teachers College and Ashford approached her to sit for him. The media said a painting of this size would fetch Ashford $1,000…but he likely gave this to Miss Fossum for posing.

We read about this painting in local newspapers but finding it was a challenge. We ultimately tracked it down to grandchildren of Fossum, however, by the time we connected the dots, she would be known as Sue Hull (second marriage). And the grandchildren had her first husband’s name, Stevens. The family who still lovingly owns this is on the east coast.

You can more about the painting and Miss Fossum at https://frankashford.com/portfolio/juanita-fossum/

Troy McQuillen

Corrinne “Connie” Raymond won the Miss Aberdeen pageant in 1927. She advanced to Yankton where she took third place in t...
03/19/2022

Corrinne “Connie” Raymond won the Miss Aberdeen pageant in 1927. She advanced to Yankton where she took third place in the Miss South Dakota contest. Both competitions were sponsored by the American Legion. Frank Ashford offered portraits of contest winners. He painted this of Connie in 1927. There is an inscription in the upper left above his signature, but it is not legible due to surface grime and yellowing. After reading about Ashford painting this and another Raymond painting in an Aberdeen newspaper from the time, we hunted this painting down in a small town in Idaho. Raymond’s grandchildren still own and adore the artwork. We hired a local photographer to shoot the painting for us. It measures about 24” high, by 22” wide. It needs some conservation, but it is a stunning painting.

We located some Frank Ashford portraits of South Dakota leaders in storage at the South Dakota Cultural Heritage Center ...
02/27/2022

We located some Frank Ashford portraits of South Dakota leaders in storage at the South Dakota Cultural Heritage Center and digital archivist, Katy Schmidt allowed us to photograph them for our online gallery. Included is Governor Leslie Jensen (in the blue suit, served 1937-1939), Secretary of Agriculture, Lewis Crill. It is not known if Frank Ashford painted Jensen in 1958 during a live sitting, or from a photograph since it was nearly 20 years since he served. We are grateful to SDCHC for allowing us access and permitting us use of these images.

Have you seen this painting, The Three Sisters by F.C. Ashford? This was Frank Clifford Ashford's most famous painting, ...
02/02/2022

Have you seen this painting, The Three Sisters by F.C. Ashford? This was Frank Clifford Ashford's most famous painting, as near as we can tell. And it's missing. Well, we don't know where it is. It was rumored to be owned by a Savings in Loan in Van Nuys, CA in the late 1950s. The bank is long gone. Family members of the owners don't know anything about it. Do you? Message this page if you have any information about it.

Something to see for sure!
12/21/2021

Something to see for sure!

Bring YOUR family to see OUR most beloved family. Harvey Dunn's "The Prairie is My Garden" has been called the "Mona Lisa" of the South Dakota Art Museum but you won't have to fight crowds or stand behind a barrier to enjoy this iconic Dunn prairie painting...or any of the other artworks on view throughout the museum. But you will need to come in today through Thursday (10 am - 5 pm) to appreciate it in 2021 because we'll be closed for the holidays Dec. 24 - Jan.2.

Happy holidays to you and your family!

Harvey Dunn, "The Prairie is My Garden," oil on canvas, 1950. South Dakota Art Museum 1970.01.38. Gift of Edgar M. Soreng.

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Aberdeen, SD
57401

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