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Henry George Keller
Reclining Female Nude

c. 1948

About the Item

Reclining Female Nude Charcoal and colored chalks with white highlights on tan laid paper, c. 1948 Signed and monogrammed by the artist lower right (see photo) A masterpiece drawing demonstrating the foreshortening of the model's legs. From the Leona G. Prasse Collection, former Curator of Prints and Drawings at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Condition: Excellent Image size: 12 3/8 x 20 5/8 inches Provenance: Leona E. Prasse (her collector's stamp n reverse) Lynn Prasse Bittel, her niece THOMAS FRENCH FINE ART, LLC Henry Keller (1869-1949) Born aboard ship off Nova Scotia of German parents on April 3, 1869. The Keller family settled in Ohio. Henry studied in Cleveland at the Institute of Art and for 43 years taught at that school. During the 1890s he worked there at the Morgan Lithograph Company, during which time he studied in NYC at the ASL. Keller made his first trip to California in 1915 to attend the PPIE. Following a visit to San Diego in 1925, he spent several summers there. He was elected an associate of the National Academy in 1939. In 1948 he moved to San Diego to live with his son and died there on Aug. 3, 1949. The subjects of his watercolors, oils, lithographs, and etchings include horses, figures, landscapes of Ohio, San Diego, and from his world travels. Exh: Royal Academy (Munich) 1902 (silver medal); Armory Show (NYC), 1913; Carnegie Inst., 1914-44; AIC, 1929 (prize); Calif. WC Society, 1940; Cleveland Museum, 1950 (memorial). In: Library of Congress; Whitney Museum (NYC); MM; Cleveland Museum; Boston Museum. Courtesy: AskArt Source: Edan Hughes, "Artists in California, 1786-1940," American Art Annual 1903-33 American Magazine of Art, Sept. 1936 Who's Who in American Art 1936-47 KELLER, HENRY GEORGE (3 Apr. 1869-3 Aug. 1949), painter and teacher, was born at sea as his parents, Jacob and Barbara (Karcher) Keller, came to Cleveland. In 1887, Keller entered the Cleveland School of Art, studying for 3 years, then studying at Karlsruhe in Germany 2 years before returning to complete his Cleveland education. He studied in Dusseldorf, then at Munich from 1899-1902, and also attended the Art Students' League in New York and Cincinnati School of Art, working as a lithographer to finance his schooling. He joined the teaching staff at Cleveland School of Art (see CLEVELAND INSTITUTE OF ART), serving until 1945. Keller had little sympathy with modernism, seeing his function as expressing nature as he saw it. In 1928, Keller won the Davis Purchase Prize at Witte Memorial Museum in San Antonio; in 1929, the Blair Purchase Prize at the Art Institute Internatl. Exhibition of Water Colors in Chicago. He made 11 Carnegie shows in Pittsburgh and had 1-man shows throughout the country. In 1919, he won the Special Award for sustained excellence for entries in the first MAY SHOW at the CLEVELAND MUSEUM OF ART. Keller's themes were American, and he felt the Midwest was the great reservoir of the American Idea. He started a summer school at Berlin Hts., Ohio, ca. 1908. Keller married Imogene Leslie on 2 Jan. 1893 and had 2 sons, Henry Leslie and Albert Fay. Following his wife's death in 1948, Keller moved to San Diego, Calif. Both Keller and his wife are buried in the old burying ground at Berlin Hts. Village. Courtesy Case THOMAS FRENCH FINE ART, LLC Henry Keller (1869-1949) A native of Cleveland, Ohio, Henry Keller had a forty-year career as a teacher at the Cleveland School of Art and also directed a summer school at Berlin Heights, Ohio. He became the first artist in Ohio to achieve distinction in watercolor. By combining watercolor with tempera and other media, he created innovations widely adopted by his students including Charles Burchfield, Paul Travis, and Frank Wilcox. However, few remaining examples of his work have been found. He was first trained at the Western Reserve School of Design for Women where he received special permission to attend classes. In 1890, he spent a year in Karlsruhe, Germany at the Art Academy and then returned to Cleveland to work as a circus poster designer for the Morgan Lithograph Company. In 1899, he returned to Germany for further art studies and enrolled at academies in Dusseldorf and Munich. In 1902, he received a medal in a Munich Royal Academy exhibition and then returned to Cleveland to begin his teaching career. Around 1903, he began painting outdoors at his family's farm near Berlin Heights, about 40 miles west of Cleveland, and since it was easily reached by train, other artists began to follow. By 1909, he had formally established his art school there. He also collaborated with John MacCleod of Western Reserve University on a three-year scientific study of color theory. And 1913 he co-authored an article on "the physiology of color vision in modern art." By 1913, he was the region's most outspoken advocate of avant-garde art and wrote the introductory essay for the catalogue of an exhibition of French Cubist paintings at the William Taylor Gallery in Cleveland in the summer of 1913. He lectured widely on the defense of European modernism, and two of his paintings were in the New York Armory Show. Keller constantly traveled and often used watercolor to capture his impressions of Spain, Portugal, Puerto Rico, and the Austrian Tyrol. To capture the essence of each place he often worked quickly with spontaneous brushstrokes and pure color rather than the "literal descriptions of topography." He was especially influenced by Paul Cezanne and Henri Matisse and developed a method of outlining his forms with intense blue to create a sense of volume. He also adopted Japanese methods of using decorative, rhythmic designs and the spirited brushwork in Chinese watercolor painting. Courtesy: AskArt Credits: Robinson, W. "Henry Keller, Paintings of a Traveler." American Art Review, Winter 1994
  • Creator:
    Henry George Keller (1870-1949, American)
  • Creation Year:
    c. 1948
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 12.38 in (31.45 cm)Width: 20.63 in (52.41 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
  • Gallery Location:
    Fairlawn, OH
  • Reference Number:
    Seller: FA78781stDibs: LU14014198332
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