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Henry James Soulen (1888–1965)
Oil on Board
20 x 23 5/8 inches
Newcomb Macklin frame of 24 1/2 x 27 3/4 inches
Signed H.J. Soulen lower right
Fine condition
Chicagoland origin
Henry James Soulen, was born in 1888 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, enjoyed a long and active career as a painter and illustrator for a number of magazines and esteemed publications. He studied at the Milwaukee Art Institute and the Chicago Institute, and spent two years as the pupil of Howard Pyle in Wilmington, Delaware. More than two thousand of Soulen’s paintings would appear as covers and illustrations for magazines such as National Geographic, The Saturday Evening Post, The Ladies Home Journal and Country Gentlemen, ranging in subject matter from early genre art of the twentieth century, to Asian and religious motifs.
He exhibited his work in New York, Chicago, Milwaukee and Philadelphia, and among other awards, Soulen won a popular poll for his Winter Scene at the Art in Advertising Exhibition in 1941. He went on to teach occasional classes and specialized courses at the University of Maryland, and throughout the Second World War and post-war years Soulen led art classes for wounded military members at the U.S.O in Phoenixville and the Valley Forge Army Hospital.