American 1904 - 1973

Born in New York City, Barse Miller became a painter and muralist, studying art first from his mother, Susan Barse Miller (1875-1935), an academically trained artist.  At age eleven, he began studies at the National Academy of Design in New York and at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts with Henry Snell and Hugh Breckenridge.  He also studied in Paris and then from 1924 taught drawing at Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles and did murals for the WPA. 

In the 1920s, he joined the California Watercolor Society and is best known there for Los Angeles area scenes.  He became a World War II special artist- correspondent for Life magazine, and was attached to General MacArthur's Pacific headquarters as chief of the Combat Art Section. 

Following the war, he taught in New York at the Art Center School and Queens College but maintained a studio in Maine.  He also made occasional trips back to California and in 1966 taught at the Rex Brandt Summer School. 

He died in Mexico in 1973. 

Source:
Edan Hughes, Artists in California, 1786-1940