Charles Nicholas Sarka

American painter and illustrator, 1879–1960

BiographyBorn in Chicago, Sarka apprenticed at age eleven in an engraving plant, sketching figures on blocks for the engravers. By age sixteen he was a staff artist for Chicago Record. Then he worked for New York Herald. He lived for sixty years in New York City and for fifty years kept a summer camp on Canada Lake in the Adirondacks, among a small colony of artist friends. He illustrated for Collier's, Cosmopolitan, Harper's and other popular magazines. He made his living as an illustrator and muralist, but also created non-illustrative paintings and drawings.

His works are in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Chicago Art Institute, the National Portrait Gallery and other public and private collections.

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