Richard Franklin
Neo-Classical Realist Painter

In March of 1997, Richard Franklin's artistic contribution to the world ended with a tragic plane crash outside of Prescott, Arizona. He was only 35 years old. At the time of his death, he had already become internationally recognized for his artistic vision and had been collected and exhibited globally. What he left behind is a legacy that reveals the incredible talent of an artistic visionary. These are among the last limited editions available worldwide that were signed by Richard prior to his untimely death.

Richard Franklin remains one of the world's foremost neo-Classical artists. His treatment of the human figure is linked to the religious, mythological and secular visions of the Classical style that he found so inspirational. Working during an era focused on modernism and abstraction, Franklin was drawn to Classicism early in his artistic career and joined a genre of contemporary artists whose creative quest was to apply the techniques of the Masters to modern artistic expression. Although Classicism continued to be considered the historical pinnacle of artistic creativity, it was countered at the turn of the twentieth century as artists turned their attention to new artistic concepts birthed in freedom of expression, abstraction and in the mind's eye. While the art world embarked on a new order of politics, psychology and creative revolution, the foundations of Classicism remained alive in the halls of the great museums of Europe and America. On the aged canvases and crumbling walls of Europe, Franklin discovered his artistic passions.

"I learned things from studying the works of men like Vermeer, Titian, and Van Dyke that I could never find in a book." — Richard Franklin

Franklin's artistic quest was to capture the essence of the human spirit through the human form and the inspirational images he found in the halls of European museums. He studied the works of the Masters first-hand and nurtured his passion for painting by immersing himself in Classical techniques, incorporating a distressed, textural quality to his work that he had found in the art of Renaissance frescos and time-worn canvases. Michelangelo, Rembrandt, Titian, Pierro Della
Francesca and their contemporaries had introduced the world to painterly techniques of dynamic composition, the use of color to evoke an intended mood, and most importantly, the advent of chiaroscuro as Classicism was born. Each of these elements is given renewed expression in Franklin's images. Franklin's neo-Classical approach to composition and his quest to reclaim the imagery of the "ideal" human figure and its relationship to the Classical foundations of Antiquity are the basis for his final body of work. The result is a unique aesthetic, born in the ideal beauty sought by the Old Masters and channeled through Richard Franklin's brush. Franklin's work pays homage to the Classical masters who set the standard for all figurative painters to come. Like the masters before him, Franklin believed a painting should represent a window into another world in which the content was portrayed as realistically as possible.

Nineteenth century poetry was another great inspiration for the artist, and the majority of Franklin's later works were titled to reflect this passion; Thisbe, Eos, Flora, and Donna Velata. He was particularly moved by the poetry of Alfred Lord Tennyson, whose words were a source of inspiration for him near the unexpected end of his artistic career.

"The effects of age in an old painting add a richness and translucency that even the Masters did not foresee, and which I attempt to reproduce... These aged techniques tend to add character to my pieces." — Richard Franklin

Galleria Silecchia is honored to represent Richard Franklin.


Click on Richard Franklin images at right for larger view.


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the works of Richard Franklin.

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