The Journal of San Diego History
SAN DIEGO HISTORICAL SOCIETY QUARTERLY
Summer 1986, Volume 32, Number 3
Thomas L. Scharf, Editor
Painting Ladies ~ The Artists ~ The Images
b. Chicago, Illinois October 7, 1893
d. San Diego, California July 18, 1974
Pauline Hamill studied at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts under Cyril Kay-Scott and Rudolph Schaeffer. While there, she met Eugene De Vol who was assistant director at the school. De Vol, who was born on March 2, 1885, left Chicago for Denver where he started an art academy. He later returned to marry Pauline, who by that time was a recognized commercial and fashion artist in Chicago. She returned with him to Denver where she became an instructor at the new school.
About 1920, Maurice Braun convinced the De Vols to move to San Diego and open an art school in this city. Braun had started the San Diego Art Academy in 1911, and kept it going until about 1919. The new San Diego Academy of Fine Arts opened in the old Sacramento Building in Balboa Park on January 10th, 1921, with Eugene as director, and Pauline as assistant director and instructor in advanced design and illustration.
Eugene died in January of 1929, and Pauline took over as director. She continued the academy until the park buildings were confiscated by the Navy in December of 1941. She was a member of the San Diego Art Guild and exhibited occasionally, mostly watercolors, in the 1930s. In the summer of 1942, she started teaching children’s classes at the La Jolla Art Center, where she continued until at least 1950. Sometime in the early 1940s she married John S. Rea.
(Ref. Moure; SDU 12-26-20 6:1-2, 1-9-29 13:2-3; WWAA 1936-37)
