Norman Stiles Chamberlain (1887 - 1961)

3. Balboa Harbor, California, c. mid-1930s

Watercolor on paper, 16 ½ x 22 inches (unframed sheet), 21 ¼ 27 ½ inches (framed), signed lower right, inscribed verso: “Balboa Harbor, Calif/ Norman S Chamberlain/ 245 26th St./ Hermosa Beach Calif/ 993-D”

SOLD

About the Artist

Norman Stiles Chamberlain was a California-based painter and muralist. He was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan in 1887 and began his early training under Mathias Alten. He then studied Dutch Old Masters at The Hague prior to moving to Los Angeles in 1920 where he studied with Alson Clark, and obtained the patronage of Arabella Huntington. Chamberlain traveled to Mexico, studied a year in France at the Academic Matisse, and lived briefly in New Mexico. He then returned to Southern California and settled in Laguna Beach and Hermosa Beach, where he lived the rest of his life. Chamberlain’s first recorded mural was a 1916 effort for a family member’s rural Michigan inn. During the 1930s, Chamberlain was mainly occupied with New Deal Era painting and mural commissions. Chamberlain’s work was exhibited at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Corcoran Gallery of Art. Chamberlain is listed in Who Was Who in American Art and all other standard references.