A painter of still lifes, landscape, and portraits, and a sculptor of portrait busts who carved in marble, Frederick Batcheller was from Providence, Rhode Island. He apprenticed with the Tingley Brothers who were marble carvers and began his career with that medium, but from 1855 focused on oil painting and became especially noted for fruit still life.

One of his peers, George Whitaker, called him the "Romantic" because of Batcheller's habit of locking himself in his studio and playing haunting tunes on his violin.

Source:
Peter Hastings Falk, Editor, Who Was Who in American Art

Frederick Stone Batcheller is in the following collections in Rhode Island:
Brown University--Gardner House:
(Note: Access restricted, appointment required)
1. Oil painting on board [untitled]--Spring landscape, with a man by a dirt road (acc.# HP 00957)

Providence Art Club:
(Note: Access restricted, appointment required)
1. Oil painting, "Pineapples"
2. Oil painting, "Currents"
3. Oil painting, "Asters"
4. Charcoal and chalk drawing, "Self-Portrait" (1888)

Rhode Island Historical Society:
(Note: Access restricted, appointment required)
1. Oil painting, landscape [untitled] (late 19th c.) (acc.# 1977.48.3)
2. Oil on tin, "Sparrows" (ca.1880-3) (acc.#1989.35.2)

Rhode Island School of Design:
(Note: Access restricted, appointment required)
1. Oil painting on canvas, "Fruit" (ca. 1867-1889) (acc.# 38.060)
2. Oil painting, "Fruit" (19th c.) (acc.# D20.040)
3. Oil painting on canvas, "Hanging Grapes" (19th c.) (acc.# 81.288)
4. Painting, "Landscape with Figures" (1882) (acc.#. D38.066)
5. Painting, "Lilies of the Valley" (19th c.) (acc.# D20.041)

Rhode Island State House, Providence:
1. Oil portrait, "Sir Edmund Andros" (1871)

Source:
Unveiled: a directory and guide to 19th century born artists active in Rhode Island, and where to find their work in publicly accessible Rhode Island collections
by Elinor L. Nacheman

Frederick Stone Batcheller (1837-1889) is best remembered today for his still life paintings, but he was also an accomplished musician who played piano and violin.

Batcheller began his art career as an apprentice with Tingley Brothers Marble Cutters, a prominent Providence firm. After working as a marble cutter, Batcheller sculpted some marble busts, but turned to painting after 1855. He was a member of "the Group of 1855," the first organization of artists to promote the artistic and cultural development of Providence, which during the 19th century grew from a fledgling manufacturing town to a major industrial center and home to notable writers, artists and cultural institutions. Batcheller was a friend and colleague of painter Edward Bannister; the two artists had studios in the same building and both were among the founders of the Providence Art Club, the nation's second-oldest art club. Batcheller also shared a studio with James Lewin and John Arnold. Along with Stetson, Bannister, Whitaker, Lewin, and others, Batcheller exhibited at the Art Club, frequently showing landscape paintings.

He worked diligently at painting and enjoyed the respect of his colleagues, but during his career he never achieved the level of recognition acquired by his friends. He was prone to dark moods and painters George Whitaker and John Arnold commented on his habit of closeting himself in his studio for hours on end, playing the violin, when he was overcome by periods of "melancholy." Nevertheless, Batcheller's still lives are among some of the most accomplished and vibrant produced by the many painters of that genre, who flourished in Providence and nearby Fall River, Massachusetts.
-- c Roger King Fine Art