Frederick Oakes Sylvester was born in Brockton, Massachusetts, to Charles Frederick and Mary Kilburn Sylvester, on October 8, 1869. His father is a descendant of Miles Standish, a Pilgrim who came to America on the Mayflower. Sylvester's mother would die a few weeks after his birth, on October 22.

I n 1883, the family would move to Fall River, Massachusetts where Sylvester attended Durfee High School. He would begin his formal art training at the Massachusetts Normal Art School in Boston; and graduate with honors. After graduation in 1891, Sylvester would accept a one year appointment as assistant professor of drawing and painting at Sophie Newcomb Memorial College, Tulane University in New Orleans.

In 1925, Sylvester would marry Florence I. Corry of Fall Rive and they would move to St. Louis to become art director of Central High School.

Sylvester's exhibition was at the St. Louis Exposition in 1894 and had his first major exhibition in 1900. He also began exhibiting at the Society of Western Artists where he was elected associate member in1898; served as secretary from 1902 to 1905; vice-president in 1906 and awarded the Fine Arts Building Prize in 1906.

Sylvester has his second major exhibition in 1903 at the St. Louis Artists' Guild. He would later be elected secretary; serve as vice-president (1904); and president of the Guild from 1906 and 1909. During this period, Sylvester would publish his first book of poetry.

Sylvester was awarded the bronze medal at the St. Louis Louisiana Purchase Exposition of 1904; a silver medal at the Portland Exposition of 1905. He is the founding member and president of the St. Louis Two-by-Four Club. In 1911, he publishes a poetry book on the Mississippi titled "The Great River" and has his third major exhibition at the City Art Museum, St. Louis two years later in 1913.After being granted a leave of absence due to ill-health from Central High School, Frederick Oaks Sylvester would die March 2, 1915 in St Louis.

Reference:
"Frederick Oakes Sylvester, The Principia Collection" Jeanne Colette Collester, 1988 with forward by William Gerdts

Biography courtesy of Roughton Galleries, www.antiquesandfineart.com/roughton

The self-proclaimed "Painter-Poet of the Mississippi River," Frederick Sylvester was a versatile artist who captured the spirit of the Southeastern United States in paintings, murals, and poems. Born in Massachusetts, Sylvester trained as an artist at the Massachusetts Normal School and spent most of his life in New Orleans, where he taught at Newcomb College, and St. Louis, where he published a book of poems and illustrations entitled "The Great River." Sylvester exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago and the New Orleans Art Association and won medals and prizes from the St. Louis Exposition of 1904, the Portland Exposition of 1905, and the Society of Western Artists' Exhibition of 1906. His paintings and murals are featured throughout St. Louis, including the Museum of Art and Archaeology at the University of Missouri-Columbia, the St. Louis Mercantile Library, and the Noonday Club.

Biography courtesy of Questroyal Fine Art, LLC, www.antiquesandfineart.com/questroyal