Identity:

Frank Dicey was a figure painter.

Life:

Dicey exhibited between 1880 and 1888 at the Royal Academy, Royal Institute of Oil Painters, Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours and Grosvenor Gallery in London, as well as at the Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts, Royal Society of Artists in Birmingham, Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool and Manchester City Art Gallery. He also exhibited with the Royal Society of British Artists, a society which nominated JW its President in 1886. He was elected a member of The Arts Club in 1866 and a member of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters in 1883.

In 1874/1876 Dicey's name was included by JW in a list which may have been a guest list for the private view of JW's Pall Mall exhibition of 1874, or a subscription list for JW's Venice etchings as proposed in 1876 (#12714). At this time Dicey was among those who received invitations to JW's infamous 'breakfasts'. They appear to have remained on friendly terms into the 1880s and there is evidence that they corresponded with each other (#09076). In December 1887 JW included Dicey's name on another guest list, this time for a private view of a Royal Society of British Artists exhibition (#13403).

Bibliography:

Pennell, Elizabeth Robins, and Joseph Pennell, The Life of James McNeill Whistler, 2 vols, London and Philadelphia, 1908; Bénézit, E., Dictionnaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs et Graveurs, 8 vols, Paris, 1956-61; Johnson, J., and A. Greutzner, The Dictionary of British Artists 1880-1940, Woodbridge, 1980; Walkley, Giles, Artists' houses in London 1764-1914, Aldershot, 1994;.