Skip to main content
Video Loading
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 16

Henry George Keller
Cattle Series Study, Early 20th Century Bovine/Cow, Cleveland School artist

1901

About the Item

Henry George Keller (American, 1868-1949) Cattle Series Study, 1901 Oil on canvas Signed verso 22 x 26 inches 28.5 x 33 inches, framed Keller, a leading painter in Cleveland, was born at sea, off Nova Scotia on April 3, 1869. His earliest training was in Karlsruhe, Germany under Hermann Baisch (1846-1894), then at the Cleveland School of Art, the Cincinnati Fine Arts Academy and the Art Students League in New York. The young artist was an apprentice at the W. J. Morgan Lithograph Company, also in Cleveland. Keller polished off his art instruction at the Munich Academy (1899-1902) with Heinrich Johann Zügel (1850-1941), chiefly an animal painter. There he would have rubbed shoulders with Walt Kuhn. At the end of his stay in Munich, he won a silver medal. His watercolor, Santa Maria della Salute, in a private collection, is in the tradition of John Singer Sargent. According to Arthur Covey, Keller was back in Munich in 1904-05, and he mentioned a painting called Storm-frightened Animals (Weimer, 1940, pp. 570-572). In Munich, Keller also met William Sommer, a future Cleveland post-impressionist. Back in America, Keller immediately found a job at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh then he taught at his alma mater, the Cleveland School of Art until 1945. In Cleveland, remarked Keller (in Milliken, 1950), there was "a kind of pale, timid, watered Impressionism" and he reacted against it. Charles Burchfield, one of his more famous students, studied at the Cleveland School of Art between 1912 and 1916, when Keller was studying Asian art and showing modernist tendencies, having surpassed impressionism. Keller was also an enthusiast of Diaghelev's Ballets Russes, which he saw on their American tour. He studied the psychology of color with Dr. J. J. R. Macleod and underwent Cézanne's influence. Also at that time, Keller exhibited two works at the Armory Show — Wisdom and Destiny (Cleveland Museum of Art) and The Valley (unlocated). The former shows Keller's more traditional, intellectual side, with its classical allegorical figures in a stormy landscape. The theme was inspired by one of Maurice Maeterlinck's essays. Keller's modernism is revealed in the contemporary watercolor entitled Sunflower, in the same museum, which recalls some of the bravura of the free brushwork of John Marin. Keller was part of a group called the Cleveland Independents. The list of Keller's exhibition activities is truly amazing — from local venues in Cleveland to Chicago (including a special show of his wash drawings in May of 1920), Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, and New York, his works were on view year by year. The Cleveland Museum of Art presented him with awards on numerous occasions and in 1939, he was elected to the National Academy of Design. That year, his painting Circus Day was on display at the Golden Gate International Exposition in San Francisco, while at the New York World's Fair in 1939, his Horse Barn appeared in the exhibition of contemporary artists. Here the horses are closer to those of German Expressionist Franz Marc than to those of Degas. The Whitney Museum has Keller's charcoal and watercolor, Bird Rock, California (1925). The painter died in San Diego, on August 3, 1949.
  • Creator:
    Henry George Keller (1870-1949, American)
  • Creation Year:
    1901
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 29 in (73.66 cm)Width: 33 in (83.82 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
  • Gallery Location:
    Beachwood, OH
  • Reference Number:
    1stDibs: LU1768211939632

More From This Seller

View All
Janet and Bill, Surrealist Painting of Woman and Cat w/ Party Hats
By Mary Spain
Located in Beachwood, OH
Mary Spain (American, 1934–1983) Janet and Bill, 1970s Oil on canvas Signed middle right, titled verso 26 x 30 inches 32.5 x 36.5 inches, framed Set in a realm of fantasy, Mary Spai...
Category

1970s Surrealist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil

Bighorn Sheep, 20th Century Oil Painting by Magical Surrealist, Cleveland School
By Paul Riba
Located in Beachwood, OH
Paul Riba (American, 1912-1977) Bighorn Sheep Oil on paper Signed lower right 25 x 30.5 inches 30.5 x 36 inches, framed Paul Riba was a painter of Magic Realism. He explored the un...
Category

20th Century Surrealist Animal Paintings

Materials

Oil

Large Rhinoceros, 20th Century Magical Realism, Cleveland School Artist
By Paul Riba
Located in Beachwood, OH
Paul Riba (American, 1912-1977) Rhino Oil on paper Signed lower right 22.5 x 29 inches 27.5 x 34.25 inches, framed Paul Riba was a painter of Magic Realism. He explored the unreal ...
Category

20th Century Surrealist Animal Paintings

Materials

Oil

Walrus Oil Painting, 20th Century Magical Realism Artist, Cleveland School
By Paul Riba
Located in Beachwood, OH
Paul Riba (American, 1912-1977) Walrus Oil on paper Signed lower right 29.25 x 24.5 inches 34.75 x 30 inches, framed Paul Riba was a painter of Magic Realism. He explored the unrea...
Category

Mid-20th Century Surrealist Animal Paintings

Materials

Oil

Wart Hog, 20th Century Oil Painting by Magical Surrealist, Cleveland School
By Paul Riba
Located in Beachwood, OH
Paul Riba (American, 1912-1977) Wart Hog Oil on paper Signed lower right 18 x 15 inches 24.25 x 21 inches, framed Paul Riba was a painter of Magic Realism. He explored the unreal j...
Category

Mid-20th Century Surrealist Animal Paintings

Materials

Oil

Two Owls, 20th Century Purple & Green Owls
By Joseph O'Sickey
Located in Beachwood, OH
Work sold to benefit the CLEVELAND INSTITUTE OF ART Joseph B. O’Sickey (American, 1918–2013) Two Owls Oil on board 15 x 10.5 inches Joseph O'Sickey, born in...
Category

20th Century Post-Impressionist Animal Paintings

Materials

Oil

You May Also Like

Osprey Nicolas Kennett 21st Century British painting bird of prey animal sky
Located in Paris, FR
Oil paint on wood panel Signed on the back
Category

2010s Contemporary Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Wood Panel

Narcissus paradigm shift Timothy Archer 21st Century Contemporary painting blue
By Timothy Archer
Located in Paris, FR
Oil paint on cvanvas Signed lower left
Category

2010s Contemporary Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Eclipse Nicolas Kennett 21st Century British painting animal blue wild mystery
Located in Paris, FR
Oil paint on wood panel Signed on the back "Incanto" or the enchantment of shifting "Nicolas Kennett revisits the organic world through painted and s...
Category

2010s Contemporary Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Wood Panel

Silence Nicolas Kennett 21st Century art Contemporary painting shamanism animal
Located in Paris, FR
Oil paint on panel Unique Signed on the back
Category

2010s Contemporary Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Wood Panel

The return of the psychopomp spirits Timothy Archer 21st Century painting nature
By Timothy Archer
Located in Paris, FR
Oil paint on canvas Signed lower left
Category

2010s Contemporary Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

The wind of change Timothy Archer 21st Century Contemporary painting bird blue
By Timothy Archer
Located in Paris, FR
Oil paint on canvas Signed lower right by the artist
Category

2010s Contemporary Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Recently Viewed

View All