Stanton Sobel (1919-1980) American, Oil on Canvas. Brightly colored female figures huddle together, comforting each other. Signed on back. 

Size: 54 X 44 in. 

#2752 . 

Stanton Lee Sobel was born in April 1919 in San Francisco, California. His father was the proprietor of a chain of liquor stores, as well as a local politician and civil servant, so from an early age Stanton was exposed to many colorful characters and artistic acquaintances of the family. After serving in World War II, he returned to San Francisco and took private art lessons, having been exposed to the work of the “Old Masters” overseas. In 1949 he met and married watercolorist Corinne Janice Moncharch, and the two traveled around the United States extensively. After the death of Stanton’s mother in 1960 they returned to San Francisco to care for his father, who died unexpectedly during a cruise in the Caribbean in 1965. As part of his therapy to overcome his grief and at the urging of his wife, he took further art classes at the local Jewish Community Center. In the early 1970s he and Corinne both enrolled in courses at the San Francisco Art Institute, immersed in the Bay Area Figural Movement. Although they never had any children and were both older than most of their fellow students they appreciated the open-minded and exciting art scene, and after his death in 1980 and Corinne’s death in 1981 their fortune was bequeathed to the Art Institute and turned into the Corinne and Stanton Sobel Memorial Scholarship Fund, which is disbursed based on merit to prospective students in need.