The Black Hat

Kenneth Frazier was born in Paris to American parents. After graduating from Lehigh University, Pennsylvania in 1887 he returned to Europe to study for two years at the Herkomer Art School in Bushey and then in Paris at the Academie Julien under Lefevre and Constant. Like many Americans then studying in the traditional Parisian academies at that time he was also much influenced the new style of Impressionism then taking hold in avant-garde Paris. His circle of friends included Toulouse-Lautrec, Verlaine, Whistler and Oscar Wilde. In 1894 he returned to live in New York in and married Julianne Fish Rogers, a member of the prominent New York Fish family and they divided their time between New York and their country house at Garrison-on-the-Hudson. He worked as an illustrator, portrait painter, painter of figurative subjects and plein air landscapes. His portraits and subject painting of stylish women often combined Art Nouveau and Impressionist styles. He was elected an Associate of the National Academy of Design in 1906 and was also a member of the Society of American Artists and the Century Club of New York. From 1922-1928 he was a trustee of the Brooklyn Museum, the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens and the Brooklyn Institute.