Sculptor Gilbert Franklin was born in England and grew up in Massachusetts. His father was a jeweler and exposed Franklin to metalworking tools at a young age. During high school he took a course in drawing at Rhode Island School of Design and was encouraged to attend art school. He went to RISD, then continued his studies at the Museo Nacional in Mexico City and the American Academy in Rome. Franklin came to Provincetown, Massachusetts, in 1938 to study with John Frazier, an acolyte of Charles Webster Hawthorne. About his work, Franklin said: "I do basically two types of sculpture: one related to the figure; the other, abstracted forms derived from natural forms found on the Cape like shells and rocks."