FROST, George

1745 - 1821

George Frost was baptised at Barrow, Suffolk on 21 February 1745, son of George Frost (1709-1803), a builder at Ousden, Suffolk, and his wife Thomasin (died 1782). Young George began his career working in his father’s business but obtained a position in the office of the Blue Coach Company in Upper Brook Street, Ipswich, where he continued until his retirement in 1813. His work involved dispatching the coaches, the purchase of hay, straw, oats, etc., payment of men, care of horses and coaches, his wife also helped in the office. Once the office had been attended to, or left to his wife, Frost would take himself off and paint for the remainder of the day and had a natural aptitude for drawing, his first recorded watercolour is dated 1780, and he painted topographical watercolours of Ipswich but later sketching the countryside around Ipswich in pencil and black chalk but also sketched at Felixstowe, Lowestoft, Southwold and Dunwich. He became acquainted with John Constable probably through his work at the coach office and by around 1800, the two artists sketched amicably together along the banks of the River Orwell. Frost was a frequent visitor to London and appears to have also been dealing in pictures. Recorded as a drawing-master in 1797, he exhibited at the Norwich Society of Artists in 1816 six pictures including 'Ipswich Quay, Sketch in Oils', 'Scene on Ipswich Quay', 'Interior of a Stable' and 'Study from Nature'. George Frost died at his home on the Common Quay, Ipswich, after a lingering illness, on 28 June 1821, aged 77, and buried at St Matthew's Church, Ipswich. His picture 'Carrier's Cart' (lent by Mr. Lound) was exhibited at the Norwich Society of Artists in 1829. After the death of his widow, Mary née Owen (1755-1839) on 25 April 1839, aged 84, his substantial art collection was sold by Ipswich auctioneer Robert Garrod on 7 June the same year.

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Works by This Artist