Paul Sample biography provided courtesy of “California Watercolors 1850-1970” By Gordon T. McClelland and Jay T. Last.

Paul Sample, N.A. (1896-1974)...Born: Louisville, KY

Studied: Dartmouth College, Otis Art Institute (Los Angeles)

Member: National Academy of Design, American Watercolor Society, California Water Color Society.

Paul Sample attended Dartmouth before serving in the United States Navy in World War 1. He studied art in New York with Jonas Lie for four years. In 1925, he moved to Los Angeles and became an art instructor at the University of Southern California for the next ten years.

Throughout this period Sample was part of the small group of artists that developed the California Style of watercolor painting. He often chose to paint busy cityscape scenes which often included local people in their everyday environment. These watercolors were shown in the California Group traveling exhibitions and in Los Angeles and New York.

In the later 1930s, Sample traveled to Europe and then moved to the eastern United States where he became the Artist-in-Residence at Dartmouth College. During World War 11, he was an artist-correspondent for Life magazine. He then resumed his teaching position at Dartmouth, and contunued to produce watercolors and oil paintings which were exhibited in New York and California. Paul Sample biographical information:

Paul Sample, Painter of the American Scene.