Lewis A. Ramsey was born in Bridgeport, Illinois in 1875.  He was a portraitist and landscapist.  He died in southern California in 1941.

Ramsey and his family converted to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and moved to Utah in 1887 eventually settling in Payson.  John Hafen was his first art teacher.  In 1892, he began study at the Art Institute of Chicago. He then trained in Boston and New York  and took lessons from Douglas Volk, who was a student of John Singer Sargent.   

Ramsey traveled to Paris where he studied at the Académie Julian.  When he returned Utah in 1903, he taught painting at Latter-day Saints High School.  He also worked on commissions for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints including portraits of leaders of The Church.  He drew illustrations for books including William A. Morton’s From Plowboy to Prophet.  Beginning in 1918 he worked on murals at temples for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Hawaii.  From 1918 to 1930 he concentrated on landscapes and portraits.  Examples of his work are Portrait of Grandfather, Thomas Steed (1905) and Grand Canyon (1929).  Ramsey moved to Hollywood where he began a new phase of his career—drawing art card scenes and movie star portraits.

Biographical information on this page was adapted from the Springville Museum of Art.