Charles Hargens paintings enliven Pioneer Museum Art Gallery

  • Eight new oil paintings by native son Charles Hargens, who gained national fame as a western-themed illustrator, augments the section devoted to him at the Pioneer Museum’s top-floor gallery, a seasonal loan from the Dakota Discovery Museum. Photo by Beth Bogart/Fall River County Herald-Star
    Eight new oil paintings by native son Charles Hargens, who gained national fame as a western-themed illustrator, augments the section devoted to him at the Pioneer Museum’s top-floor gallery, a seasonal loan from the Dakota Discovery Museum. Photo by Beth Bogart/Fall River County Herald-Star

    HOT SPRINGS - For the second year, the Dakota Discovery Museum in Mitchell has loaned some of renowned artist Charles Hargens’s oil paintings to the Pioneer Museum, where the eight new canvases are showcased in its art gallery for the season.

    Charles Hargens, Jr was born in Hot Springs in 1893, and began his art career at 6-years-old, charging neighbors a quarter for charcoal sketches of their hous…