WILL SPARKS (1862-1937)

Will Sparks was born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri. At the age of twelve, he sold his first work: a black-and-white sketch. He studied at the St. Louis Medical College, but chose to become an artist instead of a practicing physician. He went first to the St. Louis School of Fine Arts and in Paris, studied at the Academies Julian and Colarossi. After his return to St. Louis and subsequent exhibition in the St. Louis Expo of 1886, he moved west, living in Cincinnati and Denver, before moving permanently to California in 1888. There he worked as a writer/illustrator for newspapers and taught anatomy while establishing himself as an professional artist in San Francisco.