Biography from Crocker Art Museum Store:
| James Hamlin Gardner Soper was born on a farm near Flint, Ml on July 17, 1877. Soper abandoned a law career and moved to NYC where he sold drawings to Life, Collier’s and Scribner’s magazines. After a brief period in Paris at Académie Julian, he returned to NYC where he was soon sought after as a portraitist. In 1923 he came to Los Angeles on a portrait commision and opted to open a studio on Sunset Boulevard. He painted portraits of the local elite and exhibited locally. A suicide, his body was found in the river at Baltimore, MD on June 13, 1939.
Member: Salmagundi Club.
Exh: Paris Expo, 1900 (gold medal); Louisiana Purchase Expo (St Louis), 1904 (bronze medal); Biltmore Hotel (LA), 1926; Friday Morning Club (LA), 1928; Bohemian Club, 1928; Calif. Art Club, 1928; Nicholson Gallery (Pasadena), 1929. | Source:
Edan Hughes, "Artists in California, 1786-1940"
AAA 1921; LA Times, 6-3-1928; SCA; CA&A; Fld; NY Times, 6-14-1939 (obit). | | Nearly 20,000 biographies can be found in Artists in California 1786-1940 by Edan Hughes and is available for sale ($150). For a full book description and order information please click here. |
| ** If you discover credit omissions or have additional information to add, please let us know at registrar@AskART.com. |
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