John Frost · 1890–1937

John Frost: a biography

The son of one of America's best-known illustrators, John "Jack" Frost trained in Paris, survived years of tuberculosis, and became one of the most refined painters of the California desert and the Sierra Nevada.

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A family of artists

John Frost was born in Philadelphia on May 14, 1890. His father was Arthur Burdett Frost, known as A. B. Frost, one of the leading American illustrators of his day, and his mother, Emily Louise Phillips, was also an illustrator. Called Jack, he studied art first with his father.

Paris and Giverny

While he was a teenager the Frost family moved to Paris so that the children could study art, and they lived in France until 1916. Frost studied at the Académie Julian, where his teachers included Jean-Paul Laurens, and he worked with the American Impressionist Richard E. Miller. He also spent time at Giverny, the village associated with Claude Monet, with the California painter Guy Rose.

Illness and New York

Frost contracted tuberculosis, and from 1912 to 1914 he was a patient in a sanatorium at Davos, Switzerland. After his recovery he returned to the United States and worked in New York, where he was a successful magazine illustrator.

Pasadena and the desert

In 1916 Frost traveled to the West. Seeking a drier climate for his health, he settled in Pasadena by about 1919, and he married Priscilla Geiger in 1922. His father, a close friend of Guy Rose, later lived in Pasadena too, and the three often went on painting trips together; A. B. Frost died there in 1928.

Through the 1920s Frost painted luminous, delicately colored landscapes of the High Sierra, the deserts of California and Arizona, the San Gabriel Valley and village scenes of Southern California. He applied his Paris training to the desert's elusive color, as in Mojave Desert (1919, Crocker Art Museum), Palm Springs Landscape with Shack (1925, The Huntington) and Tahquitz Canyon (1927, Jonathan Art Foundation). He was a member of the California Art Club, the Painters and Sculptors of Los Angeles and the Pasadena Society of Fine Arts, and he exhibited with the California Art Club, at the Southwest Museum, the Biltmore and Stendahl galleries in Los Angeles, and the Pasadena Society of Artists.

Later years

After his father's death Frost moved to the outskirts of Philadelphia near Bryn Mawr. Failing health meant he painted less, and he turned increasingly to sporting subjects such as hunting and fishing; a series published in The Sportsman in 1935 was also issued as prints. In 1936 he returned to California, and he died in Pasadena on June 5, 1937, at the age of 47.

Legacy

Because illness cut his career short, John Frost's paintings are relatively few. His work is in collections including the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento, The Huntington in San Marino, and the Jonathan Art Foundation, and it is the subject of Phil Kovinick's monograph John Frost: A Quiet Mastery, published by The Irvine Museum.

John Frost paintings today

Most of the Frost paintings that come to the gallery are California landscapes from his Pasadena years: desert views, Sierra scenes and San Gabriel Valley foothills. Owners can see the John Frost paintings Steven Stern Fine Arts has handled.

Thinking of selling a Frost? See how Steven Stern Fine Arts can help, or call Steven Stern Fine Arts at (310) 570-5679.

Sources

Written for johnfrostartwork.com; facts were checked against the museum and reference sources below. Where sources differ on a detail, such as the year he first settled in Pasadena (1918 or 1919) or the year his family moved to Paris, the site gives the broader date.

1. Edan Milton Hughes, Artists in California, 1786–1940, 3rd ed. (Sacramento: Crocker Art Museum, 2002), entry for John Frost, as reproduced on the George Stern Fine Arts page for the artist. store.sternfinearts.com (accessed November 2026).
2. Phil Kovinick, John Frost: A Quiet Mastery (Irvine, CA: The Irvine Museum), publisher's description. irvinemuseum.org (accessed November 2026).
3. Elaine Adams, "How the San Gabriel Valley Inspired California Impressionism and Lured Artists from Across the Nation," California Art Club Newsletter. PDF (accessed November 2026).
4. Wikipedia, "A. B. Frost." en.wikipedia.org (accessed November 2026).
5. Crocker Art Museum, John Frost, Mojave Desert, 1919, gift of John and Patricia Dilks, 2013.90. crockerart.org (accessed November 2026).
6. The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens, John Frost, Palm Springs Landscape with Shack, 1925, 88.21. huntington.emuseum.com (accessed November 2026).
7. Jonathan Art Foundation, "John Frost," including Tahquitz Canyon, 1927. jonathanart.org (accessed November 2026).
8. Wikidata, "John Frost" (Q52146374), with Getty Union List of Artist Names, VIAF and Library of Congress authority links. wikidata.org (accessed November 2026).
9. Steven Stern Fine Arts, John Frost paintings sold (titles, dates, media and sizes as catalogued on californiapaintings.com).