Frances C. Lyons Houston was born in Hudson, Michigan in 1851. As a young woman she studied in Paris at the Academie Julian with Jean-Leon Gerome, Gustave Boulanger and Jules-Joseph Lefebvre. Upon her return to America in 1874 she married William C. Houston. Mrs. Houston, primarily a portrait painter, continued to exhibit her work, and she enjoyed favorable reviews in the United States and abroad and received many honors for her paintings.

Her obituary in a Boston newspaper stated, "She was an artist of immense range; her portraits show a rare strength and feeling for character" She was awarded bronze medals at both the Georgia International Exhibition of 1895 and the 1901 Pan-American Exhibition in Buffalo. She also was awarded a m...