Palmer Schoppe was one of the group of artists who participated in the cultural flowering of the 1920s through 1940 that is called the Charleston Renaissance. In his choice of subjects and of media (lithographs and paintings) Schoppe contributed to a nationwide interest in Lowcountry life and culture. Born in 1912 at Wood Cross, Utah, he grew up in Santa Monica, California, where he received his first artistic training. Schoppe later studied at the Yale School of Fine Art and Art Students League of New York City. His career has centered in Los Angeles. He he has taught at the Art Center School and University of Southern California Film Department, and worked as a staff member at Walt Disney Studios. Schoppe visited Charleston and nearby sea islands in 1934. He was an acquaintance of Dubose Heyward, Alfred Hutty, and others who were recording in art and literature the culture of local African Americans and of the former planter aristocracy. While in the area he prepared studies for a series of lithographs that he called "A Low Country Portfolio."

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