Frank Bernard Nuderscher (July 19, 1880 – October 7, 1959) was an American illustrator, muralist, and painter of the American Impressionism style. He was called the "dean of St. Louis artists" for his leadership in the Missouri art community. Background and training Nuderscher was born in St. Louis, the son of a successful building contractor. His father wanted him to join the family business, but Nuderscher always had an interest in art. Legend has it that Nuderscher finally convinced his father to support his aspirations when at age 12 he earned two dollars sketching a bas-relief for a stonemason, therefore convincing his father that he could earn a living as an artist. Nuderscher is frequently credited for being self-taught as an artist. However, it was reported that he took art classes in New York, Philadelphia, and Provincetown, that he studied art while traveling in Europe, and that he was enrolled at the St. Louis School of Fine Arts at Washington University in St. Louis. In 1904, Nuderscher first attracted the attention of the fine arts community with his painting of the Eads Bridge which won first prize in the Artist's Guild Competition. With artists from all over the world in St. Louis for the 1904 World's Fair, it was a particularly competitive field. W.K. Bixby, a nationally recognized art patron and philanthropist, purchased the work for his own collection and encouraged the young artist. The Eads Bridge would become a repeated theme for Nuderscher and his future Granite Building studio at Fourth and Market Streets in downtown St. Louis would look out over the iconic structure. Work Illustrations Early is his career, Nuderscher did more illustration work than he did later in his career when his reputation as a painter allowed him to focus primarily in the fine arts. As an illustrator, he created commercial advertisements, architectural drawings, book illustrations, and magazine covers. Succeeding Oscar E. Berninghaus, Nuderscher created the designs and drawings for the floats in the Veiled Prophet Parade between 1945 and 1954. Paintings Nuderscher's early oil paintings reflected the vibrant urban atmosphere of St. Louis in the first half of the 20th century. Nuderscher captured industrial scenes, streetscapes, and monuments of urban progress such as the Eads Bridge. Nuderscher painted structures without sharply defined outlines and his tonalistic style conveyed the smoky air, filtered sun, and misty haze of the industrial city. Sometime after 1910, Nuderscher discovered