Artist Biography

A California painter of landscape, portrait, and still lifes, Clarence Hinkle was part of the "Group of Eight" who exhibited modernist work during the 1930’s and ‘40s. He grew up on a ranch near Sacramento and his first art instruction was at the Crocker Art Gallery. Afterwards he enrolled at the Mark Hopkins Institute and later was to study under John Twachtman and William Merritt Chase in New York City and in Philadelphia. He spent six years in Holland and France, then in 1912 established a studio in San Francisco, becoming a prominent member of the art community. At the Pacific International Exposition of 1915, he decorated several buildings including that of the Ghirardelli Chocolate Company. In 1917, he moved to Los Angeles where he taught at the Los Angeles School of Art and Design. He later lived in Laguna Beach before moving to Santa Barbara where he resided for the next twenty-five years until his death. Considered one of California’s most important post-impressionists and early modernists.