Skip to main content
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 10

Henry George Keller
Cattle Series Study, Early 20th Century Bovine Painting, 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 SellerView All
  • Over and Above: No. 6, Surreal Cat w/ Fish Bones, 20th Century Cleveland School
    By Clarence Holbrook Carter
    Located in Beachwood, OH
    Clarence Holbrook Carter (American, 1904–2000) Over and Above: No. 6, 1963 Oil, sand & fish bones on canvas Signed and dated upper left 53 x 31 inches Clarence Holbrook Carter achie...
    Category

    1960s American Modern Animal Paintings

    Materials

    Oil

  • Autumn Riders and Red Wing Black Birds, 1993 - Horse & Riders in Landscape
    By Joseph O'Sickey
    Located in Beachwood, OH
    Work sold to benefit the CLEVELAND INSTITUTE OF ART Joseph B. O’Sickey (American, 1918–2013) Autumn Riders and Red Winged Black Birds, 1993 Oil ...
    Category

    1990s Post-Impressionist 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 Detroit in 1918, was a ...
    Category

    20th Century Post-Impressionist Animal Paintings

    Materials

    Oil

  • Horses Prepared to Perform and Circus Truck, Contemporary American Modern
    By Joseph O'Sickey
    Located in Beachwood, OH
    Work sold to benefit the CLEVELAND INSTITUTE OF ART Joseph B. O’Sickey (American, 1918–2013) Horses Prepared to Perform and Circus Truck, Circus Series, 1991 Oil on canvas Signed an...
    Category

    1990s Post-Impressionist Animal Paintings

    Materials

    Oil

  • Bison, 20th Century Oil Landscape, Cleveland School Artist
    By Harvey Gregory Prusheck
    Located in Beachwood, OH
    Harvey Gregory Prusheck (Slovenian/American, 1887-1940) Bison Oil on board Signed lower right 9.5 x 11.5 inches 16.5 x 18 inches, framed Harvey Gregory Prusheck was a Slovenian-Amer...
    Category

    20th Century American Modern Figurative Paintings

    Materials

    Oil

  • Horse and Sulky, Stable and Jockey Scene
    By Joseph O'Sickey
    Located in Beachwood, OH
    Work sold to benefit the CLEVELAND INSTITUTE OF ART Joseph B. O’Sickey (American, 1918–2013) Horse and Sulky, 1982 Oil on canvas Signed lower right 24.5 x 29.5 Exhibited: Canton Mus...
    Category

    1980s Post-Impressionist Animal Paintings

    Materials

    Oil

You May Also Like
  • Ruthless Rover Oil Painting on Panel Bird Realism Contemporary 2022 In Stock
    By Walter Elst
    Located in Utrecht, NL
    Ruthless Rover Oil Painting on Panel Bird Realism Contemporary In Stock Walter Elst Born in Antwerp, Belgium - 1955 After finishing his study Medicine at the University of Brussels...
    Category

    21st Century and Contemporary Realist Animal Paintings

    Materials

    Oil, Panel

  • Blauwe Reiger Blue Heron Oil Painting on Panel Bird Animal 2023 In Stock
    By Walter Elst
    Located in Utrecht, NL
    Blauwe Reiger Blue Heron Oil Painting on Panel Bird Animal In Stock Walter Elst Born in Antwerp, Belgium - 1955 After finishing his study Medicine ...
    Category

    21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Figurative Paintings

    Materials

    Oil, Panel

  • FANTASY WORLD
    By Angel Rivas
    Located in CÓRDOBA, ES
    A fantasy world to immerse yourself in. It is inspired by great masters of painting such as; Chagall, Miró, Picasso. Acrylic painting on canvas Shipped roll in a tube.
    Category

    2010s Modern Figurative Paintings

    Materials

    Oil, Acrylic

  • Mermaids Waiting
    By Zoe Hawk
    Located in Columbia, MO
    Hawk has exhibited widely to international renown, and her work has been featured in New American Paintings, Plastik Magazine, ArtMaze Mag (UK), among many other publications and col...
    Category

    21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Figurative Paintings

    Materials

    Panel, Oil

  • Father and Son
    By Florence Cadene
    Located in Pasadena, CA
    Florence Cadène’s artwork is like natural history, a sensitive memory in the heart of animal nations, a possible communion between the eyes of humans and all dimensions of life. Fl...
    Category

    2010s Contemporary Figurative Paintings

    Materials

    Oil

  • Lion Cub
    By Florence Cadene
    Located in Pasadena, CA
    Florence Cadène’s artwork is like a natural history, a sensitive memory in the heart of animal nations, a possible communion between the eyes of humans and all dimensions of life. ...
    Category

    2010s Contemporary Figurative Paintings

    Materials

    Oil

Recently Viewed

View All