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"My ambition is to be able to paint a figure well in a well painted landscape so that the figure and the landscape are one.... I wish to paint that which I enjoy in a way that will enable other people to see it and enjoy it also."
Francis Speight
Brief Chronology, Including Selected Honors, Awards, and Solo Exhibitions
1896 Born September 11 in Bertie County North Carolina
1915-17 Studies at Wake Forest College
Takes art lessons from Miss Ida Poteat at Meredith College
1920 Enrolls at Corcoran School of Art
1920-25 Studies at Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA)
1923, 1925 Wins Cresson European Traveling Scholarships, PAFA
1925-61 Teaches drawing and painting, PAFA
1926 Receives Academy Fellowship [alumni] Gold Medal Award, PAFA
1927 Exhibits three paintings at Carnegie International Exhibition, Pittsburgh
1929 Wins bronze medal, Society of Washington Artists
1930 Solo exhibition, Milch Galleries, New York
Receives First Hallgarten Prize, National Academy of Design (NAD)
Wins Kohnstamm Prize, Art Institute of Chicago
Receives Fellowship Prize, PAFA
1932 Wins Gedney Bunce Prize, Connecticut Academy of Fine Arts
1933 Solo exhibition, Milch Galleries
1934 Solo exhibition, Everhart Museum, Scranton, Pennsylvania
1934, 1935 Teaches art classes, first summer sessions, University of North Carolina
1936 Marries Sarah Jane Blakeslee, November 7
Solo exhibition, Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio
1937 Receives Third W.A. Clark Prize, Corcoran Gallery of Art
NAD elects him an associate member
Solo exhibition, Philadelphia Art Alliance
U.S. Treasury Department commissions him to paint mural for post office in
Gastonia, NC
1938 Solo Exhibition, Greensboro (North Carolina) Art Center
1939 Solo exhibition, Delgado Museum, New Orleans
1940 Wins Jennie Sesnan Medal, PAFA
Receives Academy-Fellowship Prize, PAFA
NAD elects him a member
Solo exhibition, Corcoran Gallery of Art
1945 Serves as art instructor, Army Education Program, Shrivenham American University,
Shrivenham, England
1946 Solo exhibition, PAFA
1951, 1958 Wins First Benjamin Altman Prize, NAD
1952 Solo exhibition, Philadelphia Art Alliance
1953 Wins Second Benjamin Altman Prize, NAD
Receives grant from National Institute of Arts and Letters
1955 Wins Adolph and Clara Obrig Prize, NAD
1957 Solo exhibition, Miami Beach Art Center
1960 National Institute of Art and Letters elects him a member
1961 Receives Academy Gold Medal Of Honor, PAFA
Wins Percy M. Owens Memorial Award, PAFA Fellowship
Retrospective exhibition, North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh
1961-76 Teaches art at East Carolina College (later East Carolina University)
1961-79 Teaches in summer school sessions, PAFA
1962 Wake Forest College awards him honorary degree of Doctor of Humanities
1964 Receives North Carolina Award in Fine Arts
College of the Holy Cross awards him honorary degree of Doctor of Fine Arts
1974 Retrospective exhibition, Pennsylvania State Museum of Art, University Park
1975 Receives Oliver Max Gardner Award, University of North Carolina
1979 Retrospective exhibition, Peale House Galleries, PAFA School
1981 Wins Andrew Carnegie Prize, NAD
1984 Gray Gallery, East Carolina University organizes traveling exhibition of his work
completed since 1961
1986 Retrospective exhibition, Taggart, Jorgensen & Putman gallery, Washington, D.C.
1988 Retrospective exhibition, Greenville (North Carolina) Museum of Art
1989 Dies November 14 in Greenville, North Carolina
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