Francis Humphrey W. Woolrych

Francis Humphrey W. Woolrych was born on February 1, 1864, in Sydney, Australia. Woolrych studied art in Berlin at the Akademie der Künste, and was a member of the Hellas Art Club. He graduated in 1884. He then studied with Raphael Collin and Gustave Courtois at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and Académie Colarossi in Paris. He also was a student of Puvis de Chavannes. He exhibited a Portrait of Miss Naylor in the 1887 Paris Salon and a figure painting in the 1888 Paris Salon. In addition to the Paris Salons, he exhibited his work at important juried exhibitions throughout Paris. Woolrych met his wife, Bertha Hewitt, who was an artist and student at the academies, and in 1888 they came to the United States and settled in St. Louis, Missouri. 

In his work, Woolrych painted murals, nudes, landscapes, portraits and illustrations. His best-known mural is Wealth of the North, for the Missouri State Capitol. Woolrych also painted six murals of St. Louis history and life for the Missouri Athletic Club's St. Louis Room; The Ascension of Christ at Delmar Baptist Church; and murals for the Leschen Rope Company. 

For the St. Louis World’s Fair in 1904, he painted decorations in the fair buildings, and in 1905 at the Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition in Portland, Oregon, he won a prize for watercolors. He also won a prize for an oil painting and watercolors at the 1913 Missouri State Fair.

Woolrych was a member of many artist organizations in St. Louis, including the St. Louis Artists Guild, Two-by-Four Society, St. Louis Art League, St. Louis Independent Artists, and St. Louis Brush and Pencil Society.

Francis Humphrey W. Woolrych died on November 17, 1941, in St. Louis.