Speight, Francis, 1896-

Landscape painter Francis Speight was born 11 September 1896 in Windsor, Bertie County, N.C., the son of Margaret Sharrock Cobb Speight and the Reverend Thomas T. Speight, a Baptist preacher. As a boy, he was an energetic farm worker, but always displayed an aptitude for writing and drawing. In 1915, Speight enrolled at Wake Forest College and began taking art lessons at Meredith College from Ida Poteat.

In 1920, Speight enrolled at the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, D.C., and later went on to the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where he studied under American impressionist Daniel Garber. Speight joined the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts faculty in 1925 and conducted painting and design classes there, either during regular sessions or in summer school programs, until 1979. It was at the Academy that he met Sarah Blakeslee, whom he married in 1936. The Speights had two children, Thomas Blakeslee (Tom) (1939/40?- ) and Elisabeth Sharrock (1943- ).

...