Kopta, Emry, 1884-1953

Emry Kopta (May 22, 1884 - May 20, 1953) was born in Austria to Vaclav and Flora Kopta. Vaclav was a distinguished concert violinist and music teacher in Czechoslovakia and the U.S.; during a tour with the New York and Philadelphia Philharmonic Orchestras he met Flora Wilson, who was from a Philadelphia aristocratic family. Emry had also studied violin, but gave up when his father informed him that he'd never be a concert caliber violinist - he was nine years old.

Kopta's family moved to San Francisco when he was 16, and his father acquired a ranch in Sacramento. During a ranch accident, Emry's knee was crushed under the wheels of an overturning carriage, leading to a permanent limp, and Kopta's search for a job that would allow him to sit - he fell in love with sculpting. In 1904 he enrolled in the Mark Hopkins School of Art in San Francisco, and in 1906 he moved to France to study sculpting at the Sorbonne in Paris. In 1911 he completed his studies and moved back to Los Angeles, where he met Lon Megargee, a young artist from Arizona who later became a prominent Southwestern painter.

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