History of Mattapoisett, (Plymouth County) Massachusetts United States of America

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Francis Davis Millet, artist, was born at Mattapoisett, Mass., Nov. 3, 1846; son of Dr. Asa and Huldah (Allen) Millet; grandson of Zebulon Millet, and a descendant of Thomas Millet (Boston, 1630), and Nicholas Byram (Plymouth, 1620). He attended the public schools of Bridgewater, Mass., and served as a drummer in the 60th Massachusetts regiment and as acting assistant contract surgeon with the Army of the Potomac, 1864-65. He was graduated at Harvard, A.B., 1869, A.M., 1872, and devoted himself to the study of art. He was a pupil at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Antwerp, under Van Lerius and De Keyser, 1871-72, and won the silver medal of honor at the close of the first year and the gold medal the second year. He was secretary of the Massachusetts commission to the World's Fair at Vienna in 1873, and was one of the jurors at the exhibition. He traveled in Hungary, Russia, Roumania and Turkey, painted in Italy, in 1874-75, and returned to America in the latter year. Early in 1877 he settled in Paris, and at the Outbreak of the Russo-Turkish war in 1877 engaged as the correspondent of the New York Herald at the seat of war in Roumania. He afterward became war correspondent of the London Daily News and sent illustrations to the London Graphic. For his services during this war he received the Roumanian iron cross in 1877, the military orders of Chevalier of St. Anne and of St. Stanislas from the Russian government in 1877, and the war medals of Roumania and Russia. He was a juror of fine arts at the World's Fair, Paris, in 1878; received a medal at the exposition in New Orleans, 1885; one from the American Art association in 1887, and another at Paris in 1889. He was elected a National Academician in 1885. He was director of the decorations at the World's Columbian exposition, 1892-93, and after its opening directed all ceremonies, festivities and entertainments. He was a special correspondent of the London Times and Harper's Weekly at Manila, July to October, 1898. He was elected a member of the Sons of the Revolution; the Society of American Artists; the American Water Color society; the Institute of Painters of London, and an honorary member of the Architectural League of New York; and received the decoration of the Chevalier of the Legion of Honor from the French government in 1901. He was married March ll, 1879, to Elizabeth Greely, daughter of Horatio Merrill of Portland, Maine. He published a translation of Tolstoi's "Sebastopol" (1889), and is the author of "A Capillary Crime and Other Stories "(1872); "The Danube" (1892); "The Expedition to the Philippines" (1899). His art work includes the decoration of Trinity church, Boston, Mass.; the New York state building, the Manufacturers' building, Music Hall and the Art building at the World's Columbian exposition in 1893, and a lunette in a bank at Pittsburgh, Pa. He designed the costumes for the representation of the" CEdipus Tyrannus" of Sophocles, given by Harvard students at Cambridge in 1880. Among his paintings are portraits of Charles Francis Adams, Jr., and Samuel L. Clemens, exhibited at the National Academy of Design (1877); Bashi Bazouk (1878); The Window seat (1884); A Difficult Duet (1886); At the Inn, Union League club; A Cozy Corner, Metropolitan Museum of Fine Arts; Between Two Fires. National Gallery of British Art, London (1891); Unconverted and The Expansionist, Paris (1900); and Accusation of Witchcraft, Royal Academy (1901).

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

History of Mattapoisett, (Plymouth County) Massachusetts

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