Chisholm Trail

Signed lower right. Complemented by a hand carved and gilt frame.

Charles Hargens (1893-1997)

Carversville, Pennsylvania artist and illustrator Charles Hargens was born in Hot Springs, South Dakota. As a young boy he loved to draw cowboy, Indians and ranch buildings. By age 10, he was a “commercial success” selling drawings of neighbor’s barns and houses for $25. Eventually he would enroll at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Arts (1913-1920) where he studied with Daniel Garber, Hugh Breckenridge, Henry McCarter, and William Merritt Chase.

On occasion, Garber would invite young Hargens to visit his Lumberville, Pennsylvania, studio where the two would spend afternoons painting. A lifelong friendship resulted. In 1915 the Pennsylvania Academy awarded Hargens the Cresson Traveling Scholarship and he went to Paris to study at the Academie Julian and the Academie Colarossi.

Hargens was a fellow of the Pennsylvania Academy, as well as a member of the Society of Illustrators, the National Cowboy Hall of Fame and the Philadelphia Sketch Club. He exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago (1923 awards) and at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (1915 prize, 1917 prize, 1918 award). By the early 1920’s he began to produce illustrations for books and book jackets, magazines, and advertisements. His career had begun to blossom.

Soon his illustrations of cowboys and Indians, western life, Revolutionary War, action and Boy Scout themes appeared in, or on the covers of the Saturday Evening Post, Colliers, Liberty, McCall’s, Boy’s Life, and Gentlemen’s Quarterly magazines. His work also appeared on billboards and advertisements for Stetson hats and Coca Cola.

At first, Hargens and his wife worked from their studio in Philadelphia. In 1940 they purchased a property at the intersection of Aquetong and Sawmill Roads in Carversville. The couple commuted to Philadelphia regularly and spent summers in South Dakota. Eventually Hargens set up a studio next to his Carversville home where he and his family would permanently reside. Hargens began a lifelong friendship with fellow artist, George Sotter. Hargen’s Carversville home was the subject of many George Sotter paintings long before, and during the time they lived there. Hargens also studied with Henry Rand who had a studio next to Sotter’s in nearby Holicong. Upon the death of George Sotter, Hargens was appointed the executor of his estate. Hargens continued to sketch nearby scenes as well as stack firewood well past his 101st birthday.

It was made conditional by Hargens that all of his original artwork was returned to him after being published. This entire body of work remained in his Carversville studio until his death in 1997. This is largely in part the reason why his paintings have not yet commanded the high prices of his contemporary Saturday Evening Post illustrators such as Norman Rockwell, Howard Pyle, the Leyendecker brothers, and N.C. Wyeth. Had he sold his paintings on a regular basis throughout his lifetime, and/or had lived only a normal lifespan (he passed away at 104 years old), it is likely that the work of Charles Hargens would be as valuable as the above artists.

Sources: New Hope for American Art by James M. Alterman
- Michener Museum Artist Database project.
- Philadelphia Inquirer, February 4, 1997
- Charles Hargens, Lahaska, PA: Upstairs Gallery, 1991 (press release)
- Ted Nichols, Editor, Charles Hargens, Carversville, PA: Boy Scout Troop 64, 1995