Skip to main content
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 7

Henry Keller
19th Century Landscape of Shepherdess w/ Sheep & Dog, Munich, Cleveland School

1891

About the Item

Henry George Keller (American, 1869–1949) Shepherdess with Sheep and Dog, Munich, 1891 Oil on canvas Signed and dated lower left 19 x 24 inches 25 x 30 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 Keller (1869 - 1949, American)
  • Creation Year:
    1891
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 19 in (48.26 cm)Width: 24 in (60.96 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
  • Gallery Location:
    Beachwood, OH
  • Reference Number:
    1stDibs: LU1768214697352

More From This Seller

View All
Torre di Tiberio, Tower of Tiberius, Capri, Italy Landscape, Cleveland School
By Clarence Holbrook Carter
Located in Beachwood, OH
Clarence Holbrook Carter (American, 1904-2000) Torre di Tiberio, 1951 Oil on canvas Signed and dated lower left 21 x 18 inches 28.5 x 26.5 inches, framed Clarence Holbrook Carter ac...
Category

1950s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil

20th Century Landscape of a Barn with Haystacks, Cleveland School Artist
By George Adomeit
Located in Beachwood, OH
George Gustav Adomeit (American, 1879-1964) Barn Scene Oil on canvas mounted to masonite Signed lower right 16 x 20 inches 21.5 x 25.5 inches, framed A major painter of American sce...
Category

Early 20th Century American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil

Early 20th Century Summer Landscape, Cleveland School Artist
By George Adomeit
Located in Beachwood, OH
George Gustav Adomeit (American, 1879-1967) Summer Landscape Oil on canvas board Signed lower right 13 x 14.25 inches 18.25 x 19.5 inches, framed A major painter of American scene s...
Category

Early 20th Century American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil

Ninth Avenue El (New York City), Mid 20th Century Cityscape Oil painting
By John Opper
Located in Beachwood, OH
John Opper (American, 1908-1994) Ninth Avenue El (New York City), c. 1935 Oil on canvas Signed lower left and verso 30.125 x 24 inches The Ninth Avenue El was the first elevated rai...
Category

1930s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil

Mid-20th Century Venetian Canal Cityscape, Italian-American artist
By Louis Bosa
Located in Beachwood, OH
Louis Bosa (American, 1905-1981) Venice Canalscape, c. 1950 Oil on board Signed lower right 11.75 x 21.75 inches 19.75 x 29.75 inches, framed Born in Codroipo, a small village only ...
Category

1950s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil

Coastal Scene, 20th Century Seascape, Cleveland School Artist
By George Adomeit
Located in Beachwood, OH
George Gustav Adomeit (American, 1879-1967) Coastal Scene Oil on canvas Signed lower left 19 x 23 inches 21.5 x 25.5 inches, framed A major painter of American scene subjects, Georg...
Category

20th Century American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil

You May Also Like

Day at the Park - Surreal Figurative
Located in Soquel, CA
Bold figurative work by Richard Cronin (American, b. 1952). Two figures are at the edge of the sea, one of which is seated and holding two beach balls. ...
Category

1970s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

"Mutual Admiration" Flower Mid-Century Modern Oil Painting Monterey Artist
Located in Soquel, CA
"Mutual Admiration" Flower Mid-Century Modern Oil Painting Monterey Artist Mid-Century Modern painting of a little blonde girl in a white apron adoring her flowers by Monterey Artist Rose Marie (Smith) Ansel, (American, 1921-2012) Rose Marie was born and lived in the Monterey area all her life. She volunteered in various city government associations and founded the Parade of Nations in 1970 which celebrated the many ethnic cultures on the Monterey Peninsula...
Category

1960s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil, Illustration Board

Figurative Study In Sausalito by Patricia Gren Hayes Berkeley Figurative School
By Patricia Gren Hayes
Located in Soquel, CA
Figurative Study In Sausalito by Patricia Gren Hayes Berkeley Figurative School Modern painting of a nude woman with the Sausalito landscape in the background by American painter, P...
Category

1980s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

"Ram Island Drive" earth toned contemporary oil painting by Kelly Carmody
By Kelly Carmody
Located in Sag Harbor, NY
"Ram Island Drive" is an earth toned contemporary oil painting by Kelly Carmody. framed dimensions: 14 x 24 inches Kelly Carmody’s work has been widely exhibited and collected. One...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Panel, Linen

"Setting Off" - Nautical Scene in Oil on Masonite
Located in Soquel, CA
"Setting Off" - Nautical Scene in Oil on Masonite Original impressionist seascape with sailboat by Richard M. Bacon a New England artist (American, 20th Century). At the end of a do...
Category

Early 2000s American Modern Landscape Paintings

Materials

Masonite, Oil

Blue and Purple Mountains 2 - Fauvist Landscape
By Don Klopfer
Located in Soquel, CA
Vibrant and playful landscape by California artist Richard "Don" Klopfer (1920-2009). Signed and dated "R. Klopfer 3.86" on verso. No frame. Board size: 13"H x 19"W Richard "Don" Kl...
Category

1980s American Modern Landscape Paintings

Materials

Oil, Masonite

Recently Viewed

View All