Born 1868, Cairo, Illinois
Died 1933, New York City

A noted early graphic artist and painter, Hart traveled widely and incorporated the scenes of daily life and other observations into his art. His studies include work done in Chicago at the Art Institute School and in Paris at the Academy Julian. He was always ready to sketch, even when on the job of some type of employment. This tendency usually resulted in him being requested to move on. Ending up in Chicago around 1892, he got work as a painter of banners for the political campaign of James G. Blaine. He continued working as a sign painter so that he would have funds to attend the Institute School at the Chicago Art Institute, spending only a short time there however, before taking instruction at a small local atelier.

By 1900 he was in New York but he quickly departed for his first trip abroad - Egypt and Italy. After his return from Europe he traveled the United States, Mexico, Central American and in 1903 to the South Seas, paying for his passages with promises to send art work to the transportation companies that they could use. A number of watercolors resulted from this trip. He supposedly was back in the United States by 1905 and by 1907 had left again for Europe. It was in 1907 that he was at the Academy Julian, but only briefly, because before the year was out he had toured the outlying Departments and returned to the United States. He settled in the Coytesville/Fort Lee, New Jersey area, where in the first part of the 20th Century an artists colony had taken hold, including such artists as John Sloan, Walt Kuhn and Jules Pascin. For funds, he returned to the sign painting business in the local area.

In the last two decades of his life he would travel frequently, especially to Mexico. After 1910 he exhibited his works. Many institutions hold them. Abby Aldrich Rockefeller was a collector of his work. In 1928 she organized an exhibition of Hart’s work, all coming from her own collection.

Hart would sign his later works with the nickname “pop” and sometimes “poppy”. Upon his return from the South Seas in 1905 he was wearing a long beard. His friends thought it made him look much older than themselves and took to calling him ‘pop”. He couldn’t get rid of the name, so he made use of it.

A good reference on his work and technique is George Overbury “Pop” Hart, His Life and Art by Gregroy Gilbert.