German Impressionist painter, graphic artist and illustrator, who joined Lovis Corinth and Max Liebermann to help create the Berlin Secession in 1898.
At the age of seventeen, he enrolled at the Städelschule, where he studied with Heinrich Hasselhorst and Eduard Jakob von Steinle. He focused on landscapes but, under Steinle’s direction, also created illustrations for fairy tales.
In 1879, he moved to Kronberg im Taunus, where he joined the local artists’ colony. While there, he befriended Anton Burger and took lessons with him until 1881. Franck, however, had his own strong opinions on the depiction of nature and went to the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, where he had been recommended to Jakob Fürchtegott Dielmann. He was there until 1886.
He then began to travel, eventually settling in Würzburg. After finding little success there, he moved to Berlin in 1892 and became a teacher at the Royal Art School. In 1898, he was awarded the title of Professor. In 1902, his first wife died and, two years later, he married one of his students.
In 1906, Franck and his family moved to Halensee on the Wannsee, where he attempted to establish an artists’ colony modelled on the one in Kronberg, but was unsuccessful. He returned to Berlin and became Director of the Royal Art School in 1915. In 1928, he participated in the International Exhibition at the Carnegie Institute.
He died on 13 March 1944 in Berlin, aged 83. His book of reminiscences, Ein Leben für die Kunst (A Life for Art), was published shortly after his death.
Link to Wikipedia biography