Frans was a versatile artist who was of great importance in the development of a characteristic South African art.

Frans was born in Rotterdam, Holland, on the 7th April 1876. He received his first art training at the academy for fine arts in this city, after which he also studied in Italy and Brussels.

In 1890 he emigrated to South Africa, where he started working as a house painter. Later he entered the service of the Zuid-Afrikaansche Spoorweg Maatschappij and he helped to paint the poles white along the Delagoa Bay railway line. In this way he became familiar with eastern Transvaal scenery. In 1894 he became art teacher at a girls secondary school in Pretoria and opened a studio in Church Street East. When the Anglo Boer war broke out in 1899 he joined the Boer forces as official war artist. Striking sketches and paintings from this troubled era may be seen in the war museum in Bloemfontein, the

Afrikana museum in Johannesburg and the art collection of the University of Pretoria. After the war he was commissioned to paint several pictures, including several portraits such as that of General Louis Botha, and a painting of Pretoria.

In 1908 he returned to the Netherlands because of economic circumstances. He settled in Amsterdam and in 1910 married Gerda Pitlo, a flower painter. His interest then spread to still life painting, and especially to flower studies. His famous magnolias reached the highest sales figure of stil llife reproductions in the world. This work is now in the position of a Johannesburg collector.