BIOGRAPHY - James Francis Day (1863 - 1942)

Francis Day was born in LeRoy N.Y. on August 12, 1863.  He studied at the Art Students League in New York and at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris under Ernest Herbert and Luc-Oliver Merson.

Day became a member of the Salmagundi Club, N.Y. in 1888, a member of the Society of American Artists, N.Y. in 1891 and was elected an associate of the National Academy of Design, N.Y. in 1906 (the year that The Light of Love was exhibited).  Throughout his life, he exhibited some 50 works at the National Academy from 1888 - 1940 and won the third Hallgarten Prize in 1895 for his work entitled Patience.

In July of 1887 Day married Mary Evelyn Smith and moved to New York City.  In 1890 the couple moved to Nutley N.J. and remained there till the early 1900's.  By 1905 they were back in New York it was not until c.1912 that he moved to Massachusetts; where he would remain for the rest of his life.