Born in 1872 to a prosperous Chicago stockyard merchant, Marsh attended the
School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he worked with artists preparing murals for the
Chicago World's Fair in 1893, learning the big brush techniques of mural painting. He went to Paris where in 1895 he married
Alice Randall, a fellow Chicago art student. While living in a studio in
Montparnasse they had two sons,
James and
Reginald, both of whom achieved renown as artists. His "Lady in Scarlet", a full-length portrait of his wife, won the International Bronze Medal and was exhibited extensively. Marsh and his family returned to New York at the turn of the century, moving to
Nutley, New Jersey, where they acquired a home located on The Enclosure, a street that had been established as an artists' colony some decades earlier by the American painter
Frank Fowler. In 1914 they moved to the well-known New Rochelle
artist colony in
New Rochelle, New York. He created paintings for wealthy clients, as well as a series of murals entitled "Allegories of Industry" for the New York Engineering Society Library. Marsh also produced a number of terra cotta murals entitled "Maritime History of the Hudson" for the
Hotel McAlpin in New York, which were later relocated to the New York City subway in 2000. During World War I, he produced patriotic posters for the publicity department of the Navy. Marsh largely retired from commercial art in 1928. During the following year his parents, wife and youngest son all died. In 1930 he married the artist, Mabel Van Alstyne, and in 1931 moved to
Ormond Beach, Florida where he built a large
Streamline Moderne beachside home known as the "Battleship House" (since demolished) which was extensively decorated with murals and relief sculptures. With assistance from his wife, Marsh continued to create artworks while in Florida, including the statue of "Chief Tomokie" at
Tomoka State Park and four sculptures of muses for the exterior of the
Peabody Auditorium in
Daytona Beach. For the rest of his life, Marsh would also continue to split his time between Ormond Beach and
Woodstock, New York. Marsh died on December 20, 1961. ==References==