Mark Hampton (1940 - 1998) was an Indiana-based artist. Looking at his background one would wonder how he managed to become the most celebrated American decorator of the 1980s and 1990s. His father was a local undertaker, and as a teenager, Hampton used to ride a tractor to help with the harvest. After college he went to study law but later switched to study art history. Its hard to imagine he is the same person who grew up to create comfortable yet beautiful homes for Anne Bass, Carter and Susan Burden, President and Mrs. George H.W. Bush (including Blair House, the White House, the residence of Vice President, and more), Brooke Astor, and a gaggled of 5th Avenue gazillionaires. All the rooms on which Hampton left his inimitable mark (fingertip, thumb-print, footprint) had an individual character – even for all their seeming effortlessness and pervasive harmony, a pulse. Hampton quickly admitted to the fact that he didn't have a signature; in fact his trademark quote was: "I have absolutely no interest in a trademark style." He could choose whatever style he considered the best for the project he had at hand. And that’s why his artwork stood out among those of other artists. He also lectured widely and sketched splendidly. He died in 1998 but framed Mark Hampton art, even those that were made several years ago, still look fresh and are selling in large numbers. Hampton preferred to proceed from precedents and he had an extraordinary visual memory, so the body of his work was highly referenced.