Meadowlark Gallery: The Artist Biographies

Edgar Payne (1882-1947)
Edgar Payne or Edgar Alwin Payne was born in Washburn, Missouri, in 1882 and died in Los Angeles, California in 1947. Edgar Payne was a member of the Alumni Association of the Art Institute of Chicago but considered himself to have been self taught. He had begun as a house and sign painter and as a decorator, becoming 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. Later sketching trips were into the Sierrras, which he learned so intimately that a lake was named for him. Payne had married Elsie Palmer, a fellow Chicago artist, in 1912. In the 1920's, Payne traveled in Europe, winning an honorable mention in the 1923 Paris Salon. When he returned to California, he wrote a successful book on landscape painting and made a movie about the Sierras. His paintings were said to have been "post impressionistic in manner." He had also painted in Arizona, New Mexico, the Grand Canyon, Canyon de Chelly, and the mesas.
View high resolution images of works by Edgar Payne when available.