BIOGRAPHY

Education and Training
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1913-1920
École des Beaux Arts, Paris, France, 1915
Carlossi Art School, Paris, France, 1915
Academie Julien, Paris, France, 1915

Teachers and Influences
At the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts: Daniel Garber, Hugh Breckenridge, Henry McCarter, William Merritt Chase. Also Bucks County painter Harry Rand, who held painting classes in a barn on Ash Mill Road next to George Sotter's stained glass studio.

Connection to Bucks County
Charles Hargens and his wife, Marjorie Garmon Hargens, moved to a small farm in Carversville in 1940. She was a fashion designer and illustrator for Vogue and Vanity Fair. After her death in 1979, Charles Hargens continued to live in Carversville until his death in 1997.

Colleagues and Affiliations
Weekend visits with Daniel Garber were most likely a catalyst for Hargen's move to Carversville. Another local colleague was William A. Smith, an artist-illustrator from Pineville who designed the United States postage stamps of the Boston tea party.

Lloyd (Bill) Ney and Stanley Reckless (Vinyevski), who started the Los Angeles Art Center School of Design were also considered friends and colleagues. Hargens used many local people as models.

Hargens was associated with Boy Scout Troop 64 of Carversville. He was its first troop committee chairman when it was established in 1945. In 1994, he authorized the troop to reproduce his painting Chief Joseph White Bull in a signed and numbered limited addition, and in 1995 he did the same for The Lamplighter.

Hargens was one of the founding members of the Upstairs Gallery, originally in New Hope and now in Lahaska, at Peddler's Village. In 1993, the James A. Michener Art Museum honored Hargens with a reception to celebrate his 100th birthday.