Frank McKelvey was a landscape and portrait painter. He was born in Belfast and lived there all his life. By the mid-1920s he had firmly established himself in the art world in Belfast and Dublin, and was recognised as one of the best Irish painters of his time.
To supplement his income, McKelvey designed posters and did commercial artwork for firms like the Belfast printer McGowan and Ingram Ltd. This type of work included pencil and wash drawings of American presidents.
McKelvey's drawings, although based on oil paintings and photographs of American presidents, still manage to capture something of the character and personality of the subjects. They offer an interesting insight into a growing awareness of Ulster's contributions to early-American politics.
