Biography

Found in 18410000Conversation_JohnCarlin_WHS_FMS1.
John Frankenstein left Germany with his family at 15 and moved to Cincinnati, OH. The family were all artists, but he taught himself. Hiram Powers, a local sculptor, encouraged him to become an artist as a career, leading him to become a professional portrait painter and sculptor, working mainly in Cincinnati, Philadelphia, and New York. Later in his life he became bitter and resentful of the art world, having lost important patronage and thus being unable to achieve success monetarily and critically. After the Civil War he became a recluse in New York City.