Harcoff, Lyla Vivian Marshall
Dates
- Existence: October 6, 1883 - July 22, 1956
Biographical Information
Marshall was born near Lafayette, Indiana on October 6, 1883. She grew up on her father's farm and attended Purdue at the turn of the century, graduating with a BA in 1904. After college she pursued a career in art, attending the Art Institute of Chicago, making three trips to Paris, and studying a full year at the Academie Moderne in France. Upon finishing her education, Harcoff could not find work as an art educator, despite her credentials. Instead, she began working as a painter of porcelain for the famous retailer Marshall Fields in Chicago. After earning enough money, Harcoff took a trip west on the Santa Fe Railroad in 1913. She chose to exit the train in Arizona and spent the summer with a tribe of Hopi Native Americans, sharing in their lifestyle and painting them. At the end of the summer, she returned to Chicago by train and began her life as a professional artist. One of her earliest exhibitions was in 1914 at the Purdue University Library. She married Constantine Harcoff in 1916, the same year she took a six week sketching trip through Este Park, Colorado, Yellowstone Park, and Shoshone Canyon as a guest of the Burlington Railroad. In 1927, she moved from the Midwest to Santa Barbara, California permanently and eventually opened her own studio. Her work has been exhibited in numerous galleries and shows both in the Midwest and in California.