John Rich

American John Rich studied in New York and Boston and later taught in Boston and Los Angeles. He attended art classes at night while working during the day as an illustrator for the “Minneapolis Times”. He ran his own studio in Hollywood and was president of the California Art Club in 1944/45. Rich was known as a portraitist, but also painted still lifes, figures and flowers done in the impressionist style. His interior figures were often posed against a wall or piece of furniture with emphasis on the play of light and horizontal and vertical lines.

The painting The Trojans in Action could not be identified. The eponymous Trojans, however, are likely the football team of the University of Southern California, where Rich taught in the 1920s.