Charles Hargens

William Charles Hargens, Jr. ( born April 30, 1893 in Hot Springs, Fall River County, South Dakota; † January 30, 1997 in Glenside, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania) was an American painter.

Life

Charles Hargens was born in 1893 as the son of the country doctor Charles Hargens senior ( 1866-1957 ) and a teacher in Hot Springs in the U.S. state of South Dakota. After his parents were divorced in 1902, he moved with his mother to Council Bluffs, Iowa. In the following years, the gifted character earned additional income by selling lifelike drawings of houses and farms of his neighbors. He also met with the indigenous population of America and Western landscapes, which should have a decisive influence and enrich his later art.

Charles Hargens later moved to Philadelphia, where he studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. A scholarship enabled him to study art in Paris, France. He was active in the port as an illustrator for Wild West novels of Zane Grey and for magazines such as The Saturday Evening Post, Liberty, McCall's and Boy's Life. Moreover, Hargens designed advertising posters, including for Coca -Cola. In 1940 he moved his residence to Carbersville in Bucks County in Pennsylvania. Charles Hargens married 1917, the fashion designer Marjorie nee Garman ( 1895-1978 ), with whom he had a son. He died in 1997 at the age of 103 years.

The renowned painter and illustrator Charles Hargens gained particular notoriety through his scenes from the " Wild West ". 1982 Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts at the Dakota Wesleyan University awarded him.