Frederick Carl Frieseke
An Owosso brick-maker's son who became a leading American painter at Giverny.
Frieseke was born in Owosso, where his father ran a brick business. The family moved to Florida around 1881 after his mother's death, and he returned to graduate from Owosso High School in 1893. He then studied at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Art Students League and the Académie Julian in Paris, with a brief stint under Whistler.
He became a central figure in the American colony at Giverny. His sunlit gardens and interiors came to be called Decorative Impressionism, and he influenced many other Midwestern painters working there.
He won the Grand Prize at the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition and received the Legion of Honour in 1920. He died in Normandy in 1939. The Shiawassee Arts Center in Owosso holds one of his paintings.