In common with many other outstanding artists, František Gross was born in Nová Pake in the foothills of the Giant Mountains of northern Bohemia. He moved to Prague where he applied unsuccessfully to the Prague Academy of Fine Arts. He therefore enrolled at the Prague Technical University to study architecture. After studying there for a year he transferred to the School of Applied Arts in Prague, where he entered the studio of ornamental and figure drawing. He was a founder member of the important Group 42. At the outset his oeuvre centred on secluded and peripheral urban areas that he was able to render unusual through his characteristic poetic approach and using the calm atmosphere of late afternoon such as in his paintings Košíře. In the late 1950s and early 1960s he focused on the industrial landscape, finding inspiration in the areas of Kladno and Ostrava. He painted heavy mining machinery, cranes, excavator and chimneys. Even subject matter that was not directly related to engineering was powerfully influenced by his distinctive aesthetics of those years.