Frost, Matthew Hawkins

Introduction:

Manchester-born itinerant profilist MATTHEW HAWKINS FROST (ca. 1810-1885) produced neat skilful sillhouettes from 1829 into the 1840s. All known works are bust-sized with well-crafted highlighting and virtually all are signed. Like many profilists working in the mid-19th century, Frost would turn to the relatively new art of photography when demand for painted portraiture waned.

Though McKechnie assessed Frost as having 'real artistic merit', few works are extant; these evidence a black or dark grey base colour. While male sitters are reproduced with a sure hand, Frost's most deft works are of sparingly coloured bonneted women. Ribbon chin ties can be blue, green or pink, bonnets painted Chinese white are augmented with light grey detailing, and hair is bronzed. It's worth noting Frost often employed the motif of a coral necklace to enhance the profiles of female sitters.

Bustline terminations are variable, but many present a marked forward dip with Frost often signing 'M.H.FROST ' or 'FROST ', occasionally with a date below the bustline. Works are housed in papier-mâché or reeded ebonised wood frames. Foskett's Dictionary of British Miniature Painters  (1972) records a single miniature on card sold in Brussels in 1935, signed 'M.H.FROSTE pinxit'. Appearing to be a short-lived affectation, only the 1851 Census records Frost's surname spelt with an 'E'.

Recent research established Frost placed 5 advertisements in North Country newsprint between 1829 and 1837: YORK HERALD 12th December 1829, NOTTINGHAM JOURNAL 26th June 1830, STOCKPORT ADVERTISER 1st June 1832, DURHAM COUNTY ADVERTISER 20th March 1835, and the CARLISLE JOURNAL 25th February 1837.

In the DURHAM COUNTY ADVERTISER Frost lays out his terms in detail "...Coloured Profiles 5s, Highly Finished Profiles 7s 6d, Front Face, large size on board from 10s 6d to 1 G[uinea]...Miniatures on Ivory from 1 G to 5 G...Black or Grey Tinted Profiles, One Shilling and Half-a-Crown each". Animal portraits were also offered and "...specimens of Public Characters" were on view at his temporary studio.

The first 4 advertisements stated he was "...from the ROYAL ACADEMY, EDINBURGH", but given the cavalier adherence to veracity often exhibited in contemporary promotions, the assertion should be treated sceptically. It's worth noting when Frost wed in Norfolk in 1844, he gave an Edinburgh home address; however, no Scottish records pertaining to him have surfaced.

In the CARLISLE JOURNAL February 1837, Frost intimated "...Engagements in the fashionable Towns of the South of England..." soon required his departure, but exactly where he departed to is unknown, and his subsequent commercial history is traceable only through Census returns. Though seemingly evading the 1841 Census, it's evident with his marriage in Norfolk in 1844 and the birth of 3 children in Warwickshire, Herefordshire and Northamptonshire between 1846-1850, that Frost was on the road during this decade.

The 1851 Census locates him a 'Portrait Painter' in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire. The 1861 Census records him an itinerant photographer in the same county. In 1870 he is listed in HARROD & Co's directory as an 'Artist and Photographer' of Castle Donnington, Leicestershire, while the following year the Census locates him in Long Eaton, Derbyshire as 'Photographer and Artist'. The 1881 Census finds 'Portrait Painter and Artist' Frost and his wife in an almshouse in Cooper Street, Nottingham. The enumerator records Frost as 'Blind in one eye'; however, he continued to work from the same address as WRIGHTS' directories of 1883 and 1885 list him there as an 'Artist'.

Regarding his personal circumstances, his father was Francis Frost (1784-1829), a Manchester ironmonger, his mother Sarah, née Hawkins (dates N/K). They wed at St. John's, Manchester, 28th June 1804. Son Matthew Hawkins Frost married Catherine Watson (1820-1888), daughter of a clergyman, at North Walsham, Norfolk, 15th July 1844, Frost recording himself an Artist of St. James' Square, Edinburgh. Catherine bore 3 children: Catherine Hawkins (1846-1911), Matthew Angelo (1847-1894) and Edith (1850-1927).

Accordng to the 1861-1871 Census records, Frost's wife, elder daughter and son also became photographers. With no advertising coming to light, it's doubtful their business flourished. Subsequent Census records show Frost's elder daughter became a seamstress; in 1880, his son was committed to Nottingham Asylum as a 'lunatic', while Frost's younger daughter became a lifelong domestic servant. Frost himself was surely in straitened circumstances when, by 1881, together with his wife, he was accepted into a Nottingham almshouse by the local Bilby Charity.

Aged 76, Matthew Hawkins Frost died in Nottingham's Union Workhouse and was interred at St. Mary's, Nottingham, 28th July 1885.

Revised 26 April 2025 (Brian Wellings)