Frances Upson was born, raised and educated in Cleveland where she attended the Cleveland School of Art. She continued her studies in Alnwick and Oxford in England.

Frances Upson married Robert Young, an attorney in 1892. In several years, the young couple moved to Hollywood, California. Robert served as the first city attorney for Hollywood in 1903 before Hollywood was annexed to Los Angels. Frances and Robert had two children, Clarence Upson Young and Frances Mary Young Salazar. Her son Clarence was a screenwriter for the motion picture industry.

Frances studied with fellow artists Paul Lauritz, Lorenzo Latimer, Anna Hills and Beatrice Whittlesey. She was a member of the Ruskin Art Club, West Coast Arts, and the Laguna Beach Art Association. Upon Robert's retirement in the early 1930's, the couple moved to Laguna Beach.

In recent years, details of the life of Frances Upson Young and a similarly named artist Florence Young have been unfortunately confused with each other. The confusion resulted in the merging of their biographies and their art into an amalgam, creating a considerable problem. As the merged information was published, reproduced and often quoted, the original error was compounded.

Although their style and subject matter are similar, there are distinguishing features. Frances signature has separated letters with an elongated tail on the "g" extending left under the name.

Source: The above information has been provided recently to our gallery by art historian, curator and author, Maurine St. Gaudens of Pasadena, CA who is currently doing extensive research on California's women painters.