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FREDERICK BOCK

 

 

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Frederick W. Bock (1876-1958)

 

Frederick Bock was well known in Minnesota during his lifetime for his drawings of rabbits humorously symbolizing humankind and its foibles.  Born in Manitowoc,  Wisconsin, he moved to St. Paul in 1900, where he received training in drawing and painting from private instructors.  He first worked as an illustrator for the St. Paul Globe, then left to study art at the National Academy of Design and the Art Students League in New York. 

 

After maintaining a studio in New York for several years, he returned to St. Paul to open a commercial art studio.  It was around this time that he began privately illustrating human life changes and habits in the guise of sensitively drawn rabbits … and his friends started calling him “The Rabbit Man.”  He worked in various media including oils, watercolors, tempers and etching.  

 

In 1926, Bock traveled and sketched throughout Europe.  He enrolled in the WPA/FAP easel project in Minnesota in the 1930’s and taughtat the Walker Art Center in 1938 after its renovation by the WPA.  He was awarded prizes at several Minnesota State Fair art shows, as well as in other Twin Cities exhibitions. 

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