John Marshall GAMBLE

1863 - 1957

John Marshall Gamble was born in Morristown, New Jersey on November 25, 1863. His father worked for the Pacific Mail Steamship Company and when John was a teenager he moved with his family to Auckland, New Zealand. At age twenty he sailed to San Francisco and began art training at the School of Design under Virgil Williams and Emil Carlsen. After further training in Paris at Académie Julian under Jean Paul Laurens and Benjamin-Constant, he returned to San Francisco in 1893 and opened a studio. When his studio and most of the city went up in flames in 1906, he relocated to Santa Barbara and remained there for the rest of his life. Gamble did no commercial art work and earned his living throughout his career from the sale of his paintings. For twenty-five years he served as color consultant for the Santa Barbara Board of Architectural Review. He suffered a stroke in his studio and died on April 7, 1957. Gamble is nationally known for his landscapes which often include poppies, lupines, and other wild flowers against the greens and purples of the California hills. Member: San Francisco Art Ass'n; Santa Barbara Art Ass'n; American Federation of Artists; Foundation of Western Artists (Los Angeles); Bohemian Club. Exhibited: California Midwinter International Exposition, 1894; Mark Hopkins Institute, 1898, 1906; Louisiana Purchase Exposition (St Louis), 1904; Alaska-Yukon Exposition (Seattle), 1909 (gold medal); Del Monte Art Gallery, 1907-12; San Francisco Art Ass'n, 1916; Stendahl Galleries (Los Angeles), 1938; Golden Gate Int'l Exposition, 1939; Bohemian Club annuals. Works held: Oakland Museum; Fleischer Museum (Scottsdale); Fox Arlington Theatre, Santa Barbara (murals); California Historical Society; Crocker Museum (Sacramento); Shasta State Park; Auckland (New Zealand) Museum; Irvine (CA) Museum.