Francis Luis Mora : (1874-1940)

ACA Galleries is pleased to announce a solo exhibition of Francis Luis Mora, the first Hispanic member of the National Academy of Design. A renowned artist, painter, muralist, illustrator and teacher, he exhibited widely during his lifetime and received many important public commissions including the portrait of President Warren G. Harding on permanent display in the White House.

This exhibition focuses on drawings which demonstrate his superb draughtsmanship and depict domestic scenes, portraits, mural studies, landscapes, and nudes alongside selected oil paintings. Born in Uruguay in 1874, his family emigrated to America in 1880 and settled in New Jersey. His father, Domingo Mora (1840-1911) was his first teacher and an architectural sculptor who worked with Augustus St. Gaudens. At age 15 he enrolled in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts School where he studied with American Impressionist painters Frank W. Benson and Edmund G. Tarbell.

Later Mora was an instructor at William Merritt Chase's New York School of Art, Grand Central Art School and at The Art Students League. He was a member of the Society of American Artists, American Watercolor Society, National Arts Club, and Salmagundi Club, among others. His works can be found in numerous museum collections including Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; National Academy of Design, NY; Newark Museum, NJ; New York Historical Society, NY; Oakland Museum of Art, CA; Phoenix Art Museum, F. Luis Mora, AZ; Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC; Yale University Art Gallery, CT and many others.