Born in Bluffton, Indiana, Franklin DeHaven became a landscape painter and musician, known especially for skyscapes with tones of yellows and pinks. He arrive in New York in 1886 and became a pupil of George Smillie, learning the tradition of classical landscape painting in the tonalist style. He was the recipient of the Silver Medal at the St. Louis Exposition in 1904 and was a member of the National Academy of Design, where he exhibited for nearly fifty years, and of the Allied Artists of America.