Ormond Memorial Art Museum and Gardens

Charles Malcolm Fraser, artist and illustrator, whose long and rewarding career afforded association with many of the great names of his time, was a native of Montreal, Canada. Born April 19,1868. He was a son of William Lewis and Sarah H. (Adams) Fraser, and a grandson of John Fraser (1774-1856) of London, a Lovat Highlander and Chartist leader in 1840.

The tradition of political liberalism is a long one in the Fraser family. Malcolm Fraser’s fifth great-grandfather, Simon Fraser (c. 1668-1747), Twelfth Lord of Lovat is referred to in English histories as "The Jacobite Fox." He was imprisoned for his political views at the age of thirteen, and at sixteen joined the insurrection in favor of King James. He was impeached for high treason for his activities in furthering the lost cause of the Stuarts. At the age of seventy-eight, he was beheaded in the Tower of London, and it is recorded that he was the last man to be the victim of this cruel form of capital punishment.

John Fraser (1810-1872), grandfather of Malcolm Fraser, was no less a political figure, taking a part in the Chartist movement. He was a close associate of Charles Dickens (1812-1870) in the author’s work among the underprivileged. During his early years in London, while a music critic for one of the city’s journals, he met Isabel Winn, foremost lyric soprano of the Haymarket Theatre, and married her. However, for his political views, his property was confiscated by the crown, and he was compelled to emigrate to Montreal, Canada, where his grandson, Malcolm Fraser, was born. There John Fraser became a newspaper man and song writer under the name of "Uncle Sandy." In 1874 he met his death at the hands of political enemies, during a recess of the House of Parliament, which had been debating his stand against the existing unfair taxation.
His son, William Lewis Fraser (1841-1905), father of the artist, was a man of artistic gifts—a painter, sculptor, art dealer, and musician. For forty years he was art manager of the "Century Magazine" and the editor of the "Century Dictionary." He was president of the Salmagundi Club, famed artists’ association, in 1896. A lecturer and writer on art topics for "Century Magazine," William L. Fraser was the master of many languages. He had an unusually fine tenor voice, and as a boy had been a member of the Boys’ Choir of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. Later, while still an English subject, he gave painting lessons to Queen Victoria’s daughter, Princess Louise.
 He had returned for a time to his native country, and his young son, Malcolm Fraser, was with him. One day when the little boy was playing in the garden at Windsor with the Earl of Bathhurst’s son, Queen Victoria came along in her pony carriage. After speaking to the Earl of Bathhurst’s son, Her Majesty turned to Young Malcolm and said: "And whose little boy are you?" He replied: "I am Lord Rougemont’s son." Queen: "Oh yes, the artist who is giving my daughter painting lessons. And what are you going to be when you grow up?" Malcolm: "I am going to be an artist." Queen: "That’s right, never be a queen. It is a thankless task."

In this country [United States of America], his third homeland, William Lewis Fraser served during the Civil War as a member of a Vermont cavalry regiment and was wounded. He was a member of the Lotus Club, the Grolier Club, the Players, the Black and White, the National Arts Club, and the Architectural League. He and his family had early settled in New York City, and Malcolm Fraser attended public schools there.

In June, 1884, at the age of fifteen, Malcolm Fraser graduated from Grammar School No. 35 in New York. He then entered the College of the City of New York which he attended for two years. Thereafter, he enrolled at the Art Students League. He studied under Carroll Beckwith and with Gotham Art Students under Walter Shirlaw. In 1888 he sailed for Paris to complete his education at the Sorbonne, and with study at the Académie Julien under Boulanger, Lefèbvre and Benjamin Constant, and at the Beaux Arts with Leon Jerome.

Malcolm Fraser had first come to public attention as an artist when at the age of eighteen he exhibited with the Black and White Club at the Salmagundi Club galleries in New York. The following year he exhibited at the Society of American Artists’ exhibition. He had thus begun his career with substantial work when he set out for Paris to continue his art studies. Following are some of the milestones in the course of his subsequent distinguished career as artist and illustrator. In 1892 he painted two six-foot windows for St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in the Rue Notre Dame in Paris. In 1895 he graduated from the Sorbonne in Paris, and in the same year was awarded the title of Professor of Fine Arts by the City of Paris. Also in that year, he was sent by the London "Times" to Egypt to make drawings for an archeological expedition to that country. He also made drawings for the Boulak Museum in Cairo, and was associated with Sir Flinders Petri. Also in 1895, Mr. Fraser received a degree from the famed University of Heidelberg in Germany. Although just past his twenty-sixth birthday, he had the honor, on his return to England, of make drawings at the home of Alfred Lord Tennyson, with the poet and his place of residence as subjects. He was associated with many of the famous personages of his period: Whistler, Monet, Corot, Sargent, the Innesses (father and son), Charcot, Petri, Rodin; Sir Henry Irving, Ellen Terry, Sarah Bernhardt and G. B. Shaw; Helen Keller and Ignace Jan Paderewski. Portraits executed by Mr. Fraser at this time included two of Queen Wilhelmina of Holland and others of the Barons Rothschild, a cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church, and other prominent figures. He also executed murals for many private homes.

In 1897, after returning to this country, Mr. Fraser became a member of the Salmagundi Club in New York, and began his career as an illustrator which during succeeding years made his name well known among readers of such magazines as the Ladies’ Home Journal, Leslie’s, St. Nicholas, Cosmopolitan, Harper’s Century and other foremost periodicals of the time. He illustrated a number of fiction works in both the short-story and novel forms. Among these were "Black Beauty," F. Hopkinson Smith’s "Caleb West," and Winston Churchill’s "Richard Carvel," as well as the stories of Bret Harte. In 1908 he exhibited a series of seventeen symbolic paintings at Clausen’s Galleries in New York; and between 1910 and 1914 made a complete series of biblical illustrations for Sunday schools for the Providence Lithograph Company of Providence, Rhode Island. In 1917 he exhibited sixteen symbolic paintings at the Boss Art Gallery in New York, and the same year donated three large paintings, with poster rights, to the National Red Cross in Washington, D.C.

Mr. Fraser volunteered for service in World War I in 1917. He joined the French regiment known as the "Blue Devils." He later served as captain on the front lines, as zone commander with the American Red Cross, American Expeditionary Forces.

In 1919 he resumed his career in America as painter, teacher and lecturer on art. From that time, he had an uninterrupted career rich in accomplishments. At various times he was identified with the advertising departments of the Vacuum Oil Company, the Standard Oil Company, and the staffs of the magazines noted above. He produced work of merit for the Providence Lithograph Company. In his earlier career, he had also contracted with Bellevue Hospital to execute a series of surgical drawings. Malcolm Fraser was voted an honorary member of the International Mark Twain Society for his contribution to American Art; and he was also an honorary member of the Orlando Art Association. He has been included in "Who’s Who in America" since 1901. Two of his distinctive contributions to the world of art in recent years were his donation of a large memorial altar piece to St. Luke’s Episcopal Cathedral in Orlando in 1945; and his donation of fifty-six symbolic paintings to the City of Ormond Beach, Florida, in 1946. The Miami "News" of November 30, 1947 states that "This $200,000 Art Gallery is the first war memorial to be completed in Florida." This series of paintings, the central theme of which is: "Spirit is life’s only significant reality," was presented by the artist as a war memorial to those who served in World Wars I and II. The citizens of Ormond erected a building to house this gift, and it was known as the Ormond War Memorial Art Gallery. Himself a veteran, Mr. Fraser had been wounded five times at the front from explosions, trench knife, shrapnel and gas. As evidence of his own extensive military record, he was awarded the following decorations: The Verdun Medal, Legion of Honor, Croix de Guerre, Cross of Malta, Jerusalem Cross, Silver Star of Belgium, The Cross of Joan of Arc, and the ribbon of the French Hospital Service with three stars. He was a member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the Alsace Lorraine Society. He had received the Congressional Medal of Honor for Life Saving by a special act of Congress in 1884.

In his religious faith, Malcolm Fraser was an Episcopalian. He demonstrated great interest and amazing skill in a variety of crafts and outdoor sports. He was an expert yachtsman and a lover of boats.

Malcolm Fraser was twice married. He first married Katherine E. Church, at Orange, New Jersey, on June 10, 1897. She was the daughter of E. F. Church, president of the wholesale woolen firm of K F. Church and Company, New York. Katherine (Church) Fraser died January 6, 1930. Mr. Fraser then married Mary Austin Aldrich in New York, New York, on February 14, 1933. She is the daughter of Spencer Aldrich, an attorney of New York, being a graduate of both Columbia University and Columbia Law School. Part of Mr. Aldrich’s grandfather Wyman’s estate "Homewood" in Baltimore, was bequeathed to Johns Hopkins University. Its buildings and campus now cover the entire former grounds of this estate. Mrs. Fraser is noted for her work as a sculptor.

Malcolm Fraser was the father of one daughter, Phyllis, who married Frank A. Champlain at Brookhaven, Long Island, New York. Mr. Champlain was a member of the Coast Guard during World War I. Mr. and Mrs. Champlain are the parents of four children: Mrs. Faith McCutcheon, Philip Fraser, Phebe Lovat and Geoffrey Fraser Champlain.