Born in Columbus, OH on July 9, 1893. While a student at Ohio State University, Paul Landacre contracted a streptococcus infection which left him disabled for life. Upon graduation in 1916, he relocated to the milder climate of southern California. He soon began his career in a San Diego advertising agency and around 1922, settled in Los Angeles where he remained. In 1926 he quit his job as a commercial artist to concentrate on fine art printmaking. Landacre was the author-illustrator of several books including California Hills. Rockwell Kent once called him “the best American wood engraver working.” Landacre taught wood engraving at Otis Art Institute until his suicide on June 3, 1963.
Memberships:
National Academy of Design, California Printmakers Society, California Society of Etchers, San Diego Fine Arts Society
Exhibitions:
Exh: Zeitlin Gallery (LA), 1930 (solo); Philadelphia Print Club, 1932 (1st prize), 1933, 1936, 1944; Bullock’s (LA), 1933; SFMA, 1935; California Art Club, 1936; Northwest Prairie Print Makers, 1933-40 (prizes); Venice Biennale, 1938; Library of Congress, 1943, 1946 (prizes); Smithsonian Inst., 1947 (solo); LACMA, 1946, 1983 (solos).
