Born in Trenton, New Jersey, Oliver Kemp was best known as a Saturday Evening Post illustrator, working in the East but making yearly trips to the Rocky Mountains, other regions in the West, and also traveling world wide to explore jungle areas.

In the United States, he was a student of Howard Pyle and William Merritt Chase, and in Paris at the Ecole des Beaux Arts of Jean Leon Gerome and also of James Whistler.

Doris Dawdy in Artists of the American West writes: "He probably painted more cover designs for the Saturday Evening Post than any other artist." In addition, he did illustrations for Colliers, Scribner's, Century and others.

Also a muralist, his work "Ancient Mayans" is in the Mayan Theatre in Bay City, Michigan. He worked both in New York, and Michigan, living much of the time in Detroit.

Source:
Doris Dawdy, Artists of the American West