Samuel Hyde Harris (1889-1977)
Landscape painter.
Born in Brentford, England on Feb. 2, 1889.
The Harris family emigrated to the United States in 1904 and settled in Los Angeles. As a teenager he attended evening classes at the local Art Student League and Cannon Art School under Hanson Puthuff, Will Foster, Lawrence Murphy, F. Tolles Chamberlin, and Stanton MacDonald-Wright. He worked in commercial art throughout his career and taught at Chouinard At Institute for many years. In 1950 he bought Jack Wilkinson Smith's old studio in Alhambra and lived there for the rest of his life. The harbor at San Pedro was one of his favorite painting spots. His early paintings (1920-40) show the influence of his teacher and sketching partner Hanson Puthuff and are bathed in light and atmospheric effects. His late paintings are mostly desert scenes done on sketching trips with Swinnerton and are bolder with a palette of reds, yellow, and greens. He won over 100 awards in southern California exhibitions from 1936 until his death on May 30, 1977 in Alhambra.
Member: American Institute of Fine Arts; Artists of the Southwest; California Art Club; Painters & Sculptors Club; San Fernando Art Association; San Gabriel Artists' Guild; San Gabriel Fine Art Association; Whittier Art Association; Laguna Beach Art Association; Pasadena Society of Artists.
Works held: Los Angeles County Museum Art; Laguna Beach Museum.
Source: Artists in California, 1786-1940, by Edan Milton Hughes; Hughes Publishing Company, Copyright 1986.