EDGAR PAYNE

Edgar Payne was born in Washburn, Missouri in 1882. A landscape painter and muralist, Payne was a member of the Alumni Association of the Art Institute of Chicago and became a member of the Chicago Society of Artists. In 1911 a sketching trip West took him to Laguna Beach, California where he settled in 1917. He spent so much time sketching and painting in the Sierras that a lake was named after him there. In the 1920's Payne traveled extensively throughout Europe where he won an honorable mention in the 1923 Paris Salon. After his return to California, he wrote a successful book on landscape painting and made a movie about the Sierras. He traveled all over the country on painting expeditions, but Los Angeles remained his home where he died at the age of sixty-four. His works are held by the Nebraska Art Association, the Chicago Municipal Art Commission, the Anschutz Collection, the Herron Art Institute in Indianapolis and the National Academy of Design to name a few. Famous as a muralist, his murals can still be found today in theaters and public buildings throughout the nation.