"Bringing the Museum to You"

The Cyber Art Show continues our study of American landscape painters in the Public Domain with the first of two 12-piece Exhibitions of works by John Marshall Gamble (1863-1957).

 

Born in Morristown, New Jersey, Gamble moved with his family to Auckland, New Zealand when he was a teenager. At age 20, John began his early art education at the San Francisco School of Design, studying under Virgil Williams and Emil Carlsen.

 

In 1890 Gamble traveled to Europe to further his art education. He studied at the Academie Julian and the Academie Colarossi in Paris, training under the the notable French artists Jean-Paul Laurens and Benjamin Constant.

 

Gamble returned to San Francisco in 1893, opening his own studio, where he achieved some success selling his paintings of wildflowers. Unfortunately, he fell victim to the great San Francisco earthquake of 1906, losing his studio and all but three of his paintings in the destruction.

 

Following the earthquake, Gamble left San Francisco for Los Angeles to join his artist friend Elmer Watchel, but made a fateful stop in Santa Barbara. Captivated by the town’s wildflowers and natural beauty, he settled there permanently, becoming known as the “Dean of Santa Barbara Artists.” After a second trip to Paris and a tour of the Middle East, Gamble returned to Santa Barbara. When that city was devastated by an earthquake in 1925, Gamble committed to helping the city rebuild, serving on the Architectural Board of Review for 25 years.

 

By the 1920s, the artist was nationally-famous. After joining the faculty at the Santa Barbara School of the Arts in 1929, Gamble taught advanced landscape and sketching along with his artist friend Belmore Browne. In later years, when John’s eyesight began to fail, he eventually became less able to paint. He died after a brief illness in 1957.

 

John was a member of the Art Associations in both San Francisco and Santa Barbara. He also displayed his works regularly at the Philadelphia Art Club and the American Watercolor Society in New York City. In 1909, John Gamble won the Gold Medal Award at the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition in Seattle.