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Albert Henry Krehbiel (1873-1945), American Impressionist and Muralist: Biography

The following text, image references and layout are from the book,  Albert Henry Krehbiel (1873-1945); American Impressionist, Muralist and Art Educator, by Donald T. Ryan, Jr.  For information on this and additional books and publications about the life and works of Albert H. Krehbiel, click here.

   All artwork, illustrations, layout concepts, and material on this entire web site are owned and copyrighted © by the Krehbiel Corporation and are protected by U.S. and international copyright laws. Unauthorized use is prohibited. Please do not hesitate to contact us  regarding permission to use images or for further information and assistance.

"It seems to me that a good deal has been crowded into my life and I almost feel that if I had to 'lay off' I could easily live on the fond recollections of the past.  ... I'm almost willing to wager, at this early day, that sometime in the years hence I'll have collected a batch of such sweet and wholesome recollections that can be rated second to none.  But best of all, there will be something besides a batch of recollections.  For I believe that work with a capital W is the great source of contentment and pleasure, and since consistent work is bound, in my line, to produce something lasting, I hope some day to give pleasure to others in helping them to fish up some pleasant recollection that had most slipped away in the past."

Albert Henry Krehbiel, one of seven children, was born in Denmark, Iowa, on November 25th, 1873, to John Jacob and Anna Leisy Krehbiel. In 1879, he moved with his family to Newton, Kansas, where his father was a prominent Mennonite layman, prosperous carriage and buggy maker, and later a co-founder of Bethel College. At a very young age, Krehbiel expressed a desire to pursue drawing and painting. As a child, he had taken to painting the sides and wheels of the buggies made by his father's company and spent his school days drawing cartoons of his teachers and fellow students, much to the enjoyment of his peers and the consternation of his educators. 1

Krehbiel attended Bethel College in Newton for two years at the insistence of his practical minded father and, in 1895, he entered the School of Design and Painting in Topeka, Kansas.  “European-trained George Stone conducted the art school assisted by his capable French wife, who inspired Krehbiel’s love of the French language and people. Upon visiting the school on a lecture tour, Art Institute of Chicago Director William Merchant Richardson French discovered Krehbiel's talents and encouraged him to further pursue a career in art by enrolling at The Art Institute.”1  In a letter written May 14th, 1896, to his friend Sude (Herman Suderman, later his brother-in-law), Krehbiel wrote:

"I suppose you knew that I had returned (to the family home in Newton) and was serving my sentence in the shop. I am bound for Chicago in the fall. I am now turning out the necessary funds." 1

In the summer of 1898, Krehbiel made his way from Newton to Chicago by bicycle with his younger brother, Fred , and enrolled at The Art Institute for the fall semester. He labored for the next four years at The Art Institute as a student - three of them with painter and instructor of drawing, Frederick Richardson (1862-1937) - and, in the fifth year, as a drawing instructor. “The academic curriculum at The Art Institute was based upon the strict French regime, with long hours devoted to working from the model as well as from casts of antique sculpture.”2  Among the many prizes and awards granted Krehbiel during these years at The Art Institute, he received an American Traveling Scholarship to study abroad in 1902.

By 1903, Impressionism in Europe had run its course and, although it was not yet fully understood in America, French impressionist paintings had been entering American private collections and museums. Despite this, Krehbiel sought the rigorous training of a traditional art academy rather than joining the many American artists who continued the French tradition of studying impressionistic painting in the French countryside. He headed for Paris to study for three years at the Academie Julian under Jean-Paul Laurens (1838-1921), one of the last great history painters.1  Known primarily for his large historical paintings, Laurens was also a muralist; in fact, he was considered a rival of the renowned Pierre Puvis de Chavannes (1824-1898). One of the most respected artists of his time, Laurens was revered by Auguste Rodin and later by French writers Charles Péguy and Andre Gide.

Krehbiel in Europe -- His Studies and His Works

Krehbiel sailed for Europe on a steamer of the Holland-America Line and landed on July 23rd, 1903. His classes in Paris would not begin until October, so he settled in Laren, Holland, with the Dutch relatives of one of his fellow passengers and spent the next two months sketching and, at rare times, painting local citizens in their daily routine of work and at rest.  Krehbiel would create many more such sketches in the following two years while on summer vacation from Academie Julian, traveling the countrysides of France and Holland - often accompanied by fellow Julian classmate, California impressionist Joseph Raphael (1869-1950).  Krehbiel reproduced several of his sketches in oil on canvas when in Paris. 

“Krehbiel wrote long personal letters during two periods of his life. The first occurred during his stay in Europe when he wrote to Dulah Marie Evans, his former classmate at The Art Institute and later his wife. These letters read much like a diary, recording his thoughts about the progress of his work as well as his impressions of Europe.”1 On September 14, 1903, Krehbiel wrote from Holland:

“Last week I thought that I would have a painting to send you with Perret (a traveling companion) when he went over, but it is out of the question now. I’d worked for a week on an old man standing by a door looking at a couple of children . . . Just about noon the sun came out and made the canvas look so dingy that I took the pallet knife and scraped the whole blumin’ lot out.” 1

“Arriving in Paris at the end of September, Krehbiel began his studies at the Academie Julian on October 2nd. The curriculum at Academie Julian was centered on principles that had been espoused by Jacques Louis David (1748-1825). David’s presence dominated French art from the age of Louis XVI through the periods of Jacobin and Napoleon, and his works epitomized the ideas of neoclassicism. Classical and biblical subjects became the only ones suitable for grand painting in France and, into the twentieth century, were the ones most likely to be accepted by the jury for the annual exhibitions at the prestigious Salon Des Artistes Francais (also known as the Paris Salon).” 2  In 1905, Krehbiel received the honor of having two of his neoclassical entries accepted for the exhibition. Also in 1905, two of his Dutch paintings were shown in the autumn exhibition at The American Art Association of Paris and one of them was sold for 100 francs (the other work is Woman Sweeping).

Though Krehbiel had displayed a notable talent to paint under the rigid guidelines of French academic realism and neoclassicism, he pursued it without enthusiasm. Writing of a visit to the Louvre and a viewing of The Tennis Court Oath by David, he states:

“ . . . (The work is done) with no artistic expression whatsoever, merely mechanical and intellectual, . . . the Louvre is full of this sort of thing and lots of it. One wonders how the artist had the nerve to call it painting.”2

Krehbiel won four gold medals in competition while at Academie Julian - the only American ever to have done so - as well as several other prizes and honors, including five cash prizes and permanent placement on the school wall of a painting on a biblical subject taken from the Book of Samuel.2  On February 9th, 1904, Krehbiel wrote to Dulah from his studio at No. 9 Rue Champagne, Paris, regarding being awarded a gold medal::

"My winning of the prize at Julian’s last week seems to have given me some reputation. I am still receiving congratulations and everyone seems to think it such a feat that I’m beginning to wonder whether I’m not something after all.”1

In 1905, Krehbiel won the coveted Prix de Rome, which was given annually to the young painter who,  in the eyes of the Academie, could produce the best composition in the prescribed manner of a Biblical or Classical subject.

“Krehbiel’s classmates seem to have been more impressed with his awards than he was. When one of them sought his advice on how to go about winning a gold medal, he advised the man to concentrate on the development of his work and not on the winning of prizes.”2  His final attitude in speaking of the awards seems to be one of indifference, expressing that too much self-admiration would hinder his development as an artist. Regarding a medal awarded him in 1906, Krehbiel wrote in a letter home:

“ . . . It looks like the one from last year, with the exception of the date . . . the students crowded around me to handle the trophy, after which I dropped it into my pocket and went to work.” 1

In the summer of 1906, Krehbiel’s last year abroad, he made a walking and painting tour of Spain (see Spanish Bullfight), again traveling with friend and fellow student Joseph Raphael. Upon receiving special permission from Museo Del Prado in Madrid, Krehbiel spent three weeks making several studies first hand of works done by Diego Velazquez (1599-1660). Nine of the studies were later shown at The Art Institute of Chicago’s Exhibition of Artists’ Copies of Paintings by Old Masters (July 26th to August 28th, 1910). In a letter to Dulah, Krehbiel wrote of his encounter with Velazquez:

". . . They seem so easily done . . . almost painting by accident . . . (each figure) seems to be breathing the air around him . . . the whole reveals itself as a good picture should, without any effort on the part of the beholder.” 2

Krehbiel Returns Home -- His Mural Works

While maintaining a full-time teaching schedule at The Art Institute in 1906, Krehbiel received the commission to design and paint the mural for the wall of the Juvenile Court Room in Chicago. The scene depicted in the Juvenile Court mural appears to express the carefree joy of youth in a lawful, independent, and free land. The farmer tending his field in the background seems to represent the opportunity for all to prosper in a nation founded on the principles of democracy and free enterprise, while the adults in the left background overseeing the children reflects the importance of family values and parental supervision.

In 1907, having completed the Juvenile Court mural, Krehbiel entered works in the competition to design and paint the eleven wall and two ceiling murals for the Supreme and Appellate Court Rooms at the Illinois Supreme Court Building in Springfield, the state’s capitol.  A total of twenty-two designs were submitted from some of the best artists throughout the United States.  Krehbiel’s original design proposal for the murals included six themes: "Origins of Law", "The Continuity of Law", "Function of Law", "Attributes of Law", "The Return of the Golden Age", and "Law and Equity".  "Law and Equity" became the wall mural for the Appellate Court.  The work was classically inspired and consisted of allegorical portrayals of men and woman.  The Jury of Awards was unanimous in granting the commission to Albert H. Krehbiel.

Reducing his teaching schedule to summer sessions only, Krehbiel, with Dulah’s help, spent four years on the research, preparation, and composition of the Illinois Supreme and Appellate Court murals, which evolve into designs quite different from what he had originally planned. Having purchased a home in Park Ridge (a town ten miles northwest of Chicago), they bought an adjacent vacant lot, had a barn moved onto the property, and converted it into a studio. Large canvases were ordered from Paris and pulleys and scaffolds were constructed for the hanging and rolling of the canvases. Dulah created Grecian gowns and robes, posing in them so that their draping would appear authentic.

When each of the thirteen murals was completed, the canvas was transported to Springfield and installed.  The final mural was completed and installed in 1911.  Mr. W. Carby Zimmerman, architect of the Supreme Court Building, considered the work done by Krehbiel to be “an example of the best mural painting ever executed in the West”. In Art Across America, Two Centuries Of Regional Painting, 1710-1920, (Volume Two; Abbeville Press, New York; p. 319), author William Gerdts states:

“. . . (Frederic Clay) Bartlett may share the distinction as Chicago’s most renowned muralist of the early twentieth century with Albert Krehbiel.” (Click here to see Murals Exhibit)

Krehbiel returned to full time instruction at the Art Institute in 1911, teaching students about the use of color, design, and space.  In 1913, he also joined the faculty of the Armour Institute of Technology (later named the Illinois Institute of Technology) as an instructor of architectural drawing.  It is here that Krehbiel, many years later in 1938, developed a close friendship with architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Having left Germany in 1937 for the United States, Mies van der Rohe headed the department of architecture at the Armour Institute from 1938 until his retirement in 1958. Krehbiel, notably, was the only in-place instructor that Mies van der Rohe kept on the staff. Speaking in German, at which Krehbiel was fluent, they would frequently discuss their work over martinis at the Cliff Dwellers, an important Chicago artistic social club of which they were both members (and where Krehbiel then resides), with Mies van der Rohe puffing away at a cigar and Krehbiel smoking his pipe. 

Impressionistic Transition -- Santa Monica and Santa Fe

"Shortly after completing the Illinois Supreme Court Murals, Krehbiel’s work changed direction.  Instead of painting entirely in his studio, he began to seek the outdoors and to paint the atmospheric effects of sun, fog, and snow, with broad visible brush strokes.  It was at this time that Krehbiel began to incorporate the principles of impressionism into his work."1  Two of Krehbiel’s few remaining transitional works are Two Ladies in the Grape Arbor, circa 1913, and Lady and Her Bowl of Nasturtiums, circa 1914.  "Here, Krehbiel painted a casual color scene with a naturalistic approach that, at the same time, had sharp contours and shading of drapery folds recalling the principles of a more classical 19th century academic manner of representation.  However, the heightened color tone levels along with the subdued quality of the trees in the background suggest that he was experimenting with some of the techniques established by the impressionists of France and their followers in America."1

Beginning in 1918 and continuing through the early 1920s, Krehbiel spent a good part of his summers at an art colony in Santa Monica, California, with Dulah, Evans (their son and only child), and Dulah's sister, Mayetta, where he painted impressionistic high-keyed shore-line views and landscapes while Dulah painted her son and sister in various settings. “The continuing shift in Krehbiel’s approach becomes more pronounced in his California works. The light-flooded scenes conveyed by thick impasto brushwork emphasize the play of juxtaposed contrasting colors. There is a reduced concentration on the modeling of three-dimensional shapes, and the boundaries between individual objects soften.” 1

Krehbiel spent the balance of the summers of 1918 through 1922 in Santa Fe, New Mexico. From 1920 through 1923 - at times again traveling with Dulah, Evans, and Mayetta - Krehbiel was an exhibiting member of the Santa Fe Art Colony. “He was very well respected as an artist in Santa Fe, as well as in Chicago, during these years. In 1922 and 1923, Krehbiel was invited to Santa Fe by the Museum of New Mexico to participate in its Visiting Artists Program and given a studio in the historic Palace of the Governors next door to famed Ashcan realist, Robert Henri (1865-1929). In a letter from Santa Fe in 1922, Krehbiel wrote:‘

I must tell you of the many kindnesses I have received here from the friends of the museum . . . Dr. Hewitt from the beginning has been gracious and allotted me one of the four studios maintained for visiting artists. Robert Henri, by the way, has been my neighbor.’ ” 4

“In his Santa Fe works, Krehbiel seemed to have delighted in the free use of color. As with his paintings  Santa Fe, ca. 1922, and Tethered Mules, ca.1922, vibrant rhythmic brush strokes radiate from the canvas. Color is used with the same strength in areas of light as it is in areas of shadow.  The unnatural colors lend themselves to the dramatic sun-drenched landscapes of the Southwest. ( Click here for Southwest Exhibit.) In the same 1922 letter, Krehbiel continues:

“ . . . To me, the hours between daylight and sundown are for work – the charm of the light and color of this interesting country invite one to record its many-sided beauty without feeling fatigue.” 4

Krehbiel had associations and exhibitions with other artists of the Santa Fe Art Colony -- and the Taos Society of Artists -- such as George Bellows and Gustave Baumann (exhibition in McPherson, Kansas, 1918), and B. J. O. Nordfeldt, Marsden Hartley, and Sheldon Parsons (exhibition in El Paso, Texas, 1920). Additional notable artists that Krehbiel exhibited with during this period include Victor Higgins, Ernest Blumenschein, John Sloan, Clarence Raymond Johnson, and Stuart Davis. 4

Saugatuck, Michigan -- Rolling Hills and the Kankakee River

In 1926, Krehbiel helped pioneer the Chicago Art Institute Summer School of Painting (later named Ox-Bow School) in Saugatuck, Michigan.  The school was founded as the Saugatuck School of Summer Painting in 1910 by a group of Chicago artists led by his friend, Frederick Fursman. The summer migration of artists to Saugatuck began in 1900 when the daughter of the owner of one of the resort hotels invited some of her classmates from The Art Institute of Chicago to vacation there. Among them were Albert Krehbiel and Dulah Evans. By the mid-1920s. the Saugatuck School had become the summer art Mecca for commercial artists and architects from cities throughout the Midwest, as well as students and alumni of The Art Institute. Beginning in 1926, Saugatuck became an ever-increasing weekend and holiday retreat for Krehbiel and he spent the rest of his summers teaching and painting there. In 1934, he opened his own summer school of art in Saugatuck called the AK Studio.

When able to free himself from his students in Saugatuck, Krehbiel painted many scenes overlooking the Kalamazoo River and the neighboring rolling hills using different mediums.  He also had several occasions in the winters to visit and portray the area in its vast and billowing cover of snow.  (Click here to see Saugatuck Exhibit.)

Throughout the 1980s, Marshall Salzman - a student of Krehbiel’s at the AK Studio as well as at the Armour Institute in the late 1930s – wrote many letters to Rebecca F. Krehbiel, Albert Krehbiel’s daughter-in-law. These letters reveal much about Krehbiel’s character and his resolute dedication to the teaching and practice of drawing and painting. In one letter (not dated), Mr. Salzman writes:

“ . . . Prof. K. gave a two-hour lecture to all graduating architects (at the Illinois Institute of Technology) at their request. Needless to say, he was happy to do this absolutely free . . .. Prof. K. and I were in the Saugatuck Studio on a Sunday (when) a chauffer-driven car pulled up in front and a well-groomed lady got out . . .. She explained to Prof. K. that she represented a very fancy art group and was willing to pay him $300 to speak to her club for 30 minutes. In addition, her chauffer would pick him up and bring him back. Prof. K. said, ‘if you would be kind enough to write your name and phone number on a piece of paper, I will call you within two days if I can make it. However, if I do not call, I will not be able to go.’ She handed him the paper and thanked him. As the car drove off, he tore up the name and phone number and put it in the wastebasket. I asked what in the world he did that for since he gave our group a two-hour chalk talk every Saturday and we were paying so little. Prof. K. turned to me and said, ‘I don’t think they would understand what I was saying, and would make little use of what they might understand.’ Wouldn’t it be a great world if all teachers had that much integrity?”

In another letter, Mr. Salzman writes of Krehbiel’s entertaining ability at making drawing appear amazingly effortless and the reverence that his students felt for his talent:

“ . . . I remember one day we were all drawing nude compositions of a model.  Prof. K. walked up to Miss Tibbs (a student) and said, ‘ You use this fine charcoal that is so thin it’s almost like drawing with a pencil.’  Then he said   he was going to show her how to loosen up.  This drew a crowd as we all gathered around, knowing a demonstration was in its way.  He was fully aware of the total attention of the entire group.  He said, ‘I was going to tell you to use a larger charcoal, but I think it might be better for you to use your thumb’, at which point he crushed a bunch of charcoal on the bench.  Then he said, ‘On second thought, I would like you to use the palm of your hand.’  He rubbed his palm in the charcoal dust as he eyed the model and proceeded to put on a show that I had never seen before or since.  In three strokes he drew the entire pose with the finest edge you’ve ever seen and shaded out to perfection.  We all applauded and I think he was pleased with the result and our reaction to his skill.”

 

Illinois –- Landscapes, Figures and Chicago Cityscapes

Throughout the years when at home in Illinois, Krehbiel painted continuously.  From his historic Chicago street and river scenes to his rural and wooded presentations of Midwest forests and the hills and valleys of Galena to his synchromistic figure compositions, he painted incessantly and in all seasons without regard for the elements. 

Like most American impressionists, Krehbiel did not subscribe to scientific color theories of the original French impressionists.  Rather, he adopted other lessons of impressionism.  He was committed to painting outdoors in natural light and to capturing with a very personal vision the constantly changing character of the Midwestern landscape, mostly done along the Chicago North Branch and Des Plaines Rivers in winter. 1   Krehbiel was known to leave his Park Ridge home on a freezing cold morning and not return until the end of the day with two or three freshly painted canvas landscapes of the surrounding country.  Wonders of Winter Color, ca. 1932, Wonders of the Woods at Winter’s End, ca. 1927, Wet Snow, dated 1929, February Sunshine, ca. 1923, and Yesterday, ca. 1934, are characteristic of the hundreds of such works.  Occasionally, on weekends and holidays he would visit the northern Illinois town of Galena and paint large canvases of the tree covered hills with their spattering of homes (see Galena Hillside). (Click here to see Illinois Landscapes and Winter Scenes  Exhibit)

When teaching and residing (at the Cliff Dwellers) in downtown Chicago, Krehbiel turned to recreating the urban landscapes, most of them within walking distance to his classrooms at The Art Institute of Chicago.  These familiar scenes were painted between classes from the banks of the Chicago River.  Most were painted during rush hour when automobiles and pedestrians populated the bridges and streets.  He was often recognized, which motivated him to write some years later:

"I see many things about Chicago that I would like to paint but don’t dare to. I’m soon found out and joined by a former student with a paint box, and if I keep it up for any length of time I soon have a class and no tuition."

Krehbiel painted the Michigan Avenue Bridge and the Chicago River numerous times, each from a different perspective.  The images of the bridge were executed in 1920, the year of its Grand Opening, with the bridge towers wrapped in rows of American flags and blue ribbons.  Grand Festival At the Michigan Avenue Bridge was done on May 14th, the day of the opening.  In this painting, as well as in Looking South Across the Michigan Avenue Bridge (the largest of these canvases) and "El" Train Over the Chicago River Bridge, ca. 1922, the colors used to depict the buildings in the background – pink, lavender, and pale blue – take into account the effects of diffused light.  With Lower Deck Along the River, ca. 1923, and Workmen by the Chicago River Bend, ca. 1922, solid forms are composed of thick wedges of unblended color laid side-by-side.  Urban cityscapes such as these had become icons of European Impressionism.  (Click here to see Chicago Cityscapes Exhibit)

In 1928, Krehbiel was requested to paint a life size portrait of Benjamin Franklin to hang in the Hardware Mutual Insurance Building in Stevens Point, Wisconsin. Standing a total seven feet tall and titled "Poor Richard", the historic work was depicted from a small statue of the American icon created by  Joseph Siffred Duplessis (1725-1802). The statue was found among the Ben Franklin artifacts collection of William A. Mason of Evanston, Illinois. As stated in a feature article from the Chicago Daily Journal, March 12, 1928, the hanging of the painting was accompanied by elaborate dedication ceremonies, .

Beginning in 1938, Krehbiel embarked on writing his second series of long detailed letters, this time to his son, Evans, who was living in Park Ridge with his mother, Dulah. 1  These letters often describe the exhilaration that he felt when able to spend a sequence of days painting outdoors.  In a letter dated December 28^th, 1938, in which he describes his Christmas break in Saugatuck, Krehbiel wrote:

“Came over the last night of school (at the Art Institute) on the midnight bus and started work as soon as I landed. Have gotten my second wind now and can work all day in zero weather and not mind it . . . Yesterday worked all day in a blizzard and did three canvases. When I went to breakfast before dawn, I thought the trees were going to fall, so strong was the wind . . . Worked all Christmas Day. Turned down three invitations to dinner for fear that the light snow would disappear. I have found that a bit of chocolate and a handful of peanuts are hard to beat for an outdoor dinner . . . And to think that I will have to leave all this and go back to another kind of work on New Years Day.” 2

In a letter dated January 4th, 1939, Krehbiel wrote to his son from the Cliff Dwellers club:

"Got back the second (from Saugatuck) but found the institute closed. Had expected night class. It was good to have a day of rest. Like a reactionist who comes back to rest up. I had a good workout, 45 small and large canvases in 15 days. But I’m not telling this to anyone but you. Working from dawn to dark one learns a lot not being interrupted. And at sixty-five one has always to produce something new to show that one’s still young enough to grow . . . . I am in need of a twenty two-thirty (22X30) frame in silver or gold. Any thing that size you can pick up in the studio will do. Can you bring one in and leave it at my locker (at the Cliff Dwellers) within a week? . . . . I may wish to send something to the Chicago show . . . . I find that teaching is quite another matter from doing a thing oneself. Working alone one gets in the habit of doing it all oneself and it takes a different mind to tell one how to do a job which would be easier through a simple demonstration."  1

Increasingly reluctant to return from his painting winter holidays and wondering what kind of reaction he would get if for the first time in nearly forty years, he showed up an hour – or a week – late for class, Krehbiel writes to Evans on one occasion:

“Some day I am going to learn to be real smart . . . to telephone the school on a nice snowy morning that I am ill with a cold, and cannot come down to work. Then go out in the storm and enjoy myself.”  2

Synchromistic Works –- Abstractionism, a Culmination

In 1933, Krehbiel began a series of synchromistic figure compositions, first in watercolor and in oil on small unstretched pieces of canvas and, later in pastel and in oil on larger canvases.  The figures in this series reproduce the postures of models in his art classes and, while naturalistic at first, they gradually become geometric, even somewhat cubist. In 1942, Krehbiel wrote in a letter to Evans:

". . . .(I) never thought of them as nudes, but simply as a power in organization. . . . it became a problem of thrusts and counter thrusts, much like a chess game."

Krehbiel developed these experiments into a method of teaching figure by having students compose while drawing. Sketches of a three-figure model group, observed from various points in the room, would be rendered on a single sheet of paper – or a series of quick poses by one model would be composed on a single sheet.  In regard to this teaching method, Krehbiel writes:

"The student should create at the same time he is learning to draw. . . . He has to have ideas to make his drawing count."

As for the results of his own efforts along these lines, he later speculated:

". . . .I may be able to peddle them for five or ten a piece when I get out of a job."   

Krehbiel also produced a large number of landscapes in this synchromistic and relatively abstract style beginning in 1926.  Created mainly in Saugatuck, most of these works were done in pastel on paper and were predominantly 9" x 11" and 10” x 12” in size. With most of the pieces, the bright colors seem to emit luminescence and the landscape characteristics come together in sections of singular blended forms.

In the early 1940s, Krehbiel created a grouping of very large synchromistic figure compositions on soft-toned paper using pastel, watercolor, and colored chalk -- at times employing a combination of these mediums.  Similar in structure to his smaller figure compositions, these works contain throngs of hauntingly composed groups of figures with a mystic quality, sure in line and merged in bold areas of brilliant color. 5

Inspired by a major exhibition of works by Pablo Picasso at The Art Institute of Chicago in 1940, Krehbiel also drew a number of colorful large abstract studies using chalk on the same type of soft-toned paper.  These experimental compositions were amusingly signed “Picasso . .  par AHK” and were largely done for the enjoyment of his fellow members at the Cliff Dwellers.  Relating his feelings about abstract art and the artist’s right and ability to successfully procure its formulation, Krehbiel writes:

“Often I have been asked by my students to start a class outside and teach abstract art but I tell them it is no use, it cannot be taught. It is the sum of a classical education and comes only with the study of a motif when all is boiled down to its very essence.” 2

Epilogue -- Krehbiel Lives On

Albert Henry Krehbiel passed away from a heart attack on June 29th, 1945, while preparing for a traveling and painting trip through Illinois and Kansas. His death occurred a few days after his retirement from teaching at the Illinois Institute of Technology, although he had agreed to stay on at The Art Institute of Chicago for one more year.

Throughout his life, Krehbiel remained a quiet man who had “little time for the mechanism of commercialism”. He had amassed an extensive and extremely diverse collection of work reflecting his contribution to, and interpretation of, the developmental stages of painting and drawing in the first half of the 20th century, leaving behind impressions that take one back to another time and era in history.

During his prolific career, Krehbiel’s works were shown in a multitude of exhibitions. In addition to those previously mentioned, Krehbiel’s lifetime resume of prominent exhibitions includes the following:

n       The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (in 1923, 1928, and 1931) 

n       The Fiesta Exhibition of Paintings by Artists of New Mexico at the Museum of New Mexico in Santa Fe (in 1923) 

n       The First Exhibition of the National Society of Mural Painters at the Buffalo Fine Arts Academy Albright Art Gallery in Buffalo, New York, (in 1925)

n       A total of thirty-two exhibitions at The Art Institute of Chicago from 1906 to 1939

Krehbiel was a member of the Cliff Dwellers, Chicago Painters and Sculptors, Chicago Society of Artists, Chicago Watercolor Club, Mural Painters of New York, and the Chicago Galleries Association. In addition to his earlier honors and awards for painting, he won the Clyde Carr Prize, the Martin B. Cahn Prize for Best Painting, the American Artists Exhibit of Landscapes Award, the William Ormond Thompson Prize, and the Municipal Art League Prize for Landscapes.

Many of Krehbiel’s works are held in private collections throughout the world as well as in the permanent collections of The Art Institute of Chicago, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco M H. de Young Memorial Museum, De Paul University Art Gallery in Chicago, Illinois, Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, University of Michigan Museum of Art in Ann Arbor, Dubuque Museum of Art in Dubuque, Iowa, the John Vanderpoel Art Association in Chicago, Illinois, and The Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway Company in Fort Worth, Texas. . Krehbiel has many works listed in the Smithsonian Institution Inventories of American Paintings and Sculpture and writings, personal letters, and selected archival material of Krehbiel’s are available on microfilm at the Smithsonian Institution Archives of American Art in Washington, DC, as well as at The Art Institute of Chicago’s Ryerson and Burnham Libraries. Books, articles, and writings on Krehbiel are available at fine art libraries throughout the country.

 

"Men cannot stop growing, nor can they continue making new things merely in imitation of what has been done.  Each age must have its new tempo, its own plan and pattern, and must express itself soundly in the terms of that pattern and in the measure of that tempo."

             Albert H. Krehbiel, Saugatuck, Michigan, 1930

Community Planning, section in El Palacio, vol. VIII, No1-2, January 31, 1920, p. 51; published by the Museum of New Mexico and the School of American Research, Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Fiesta Exhibition, including the Eleventh Annual Exhibit of Taos Society of Artists, section in El Palacio, Vol. XV, No. 6, September 15, 1923, pp.98-99; published by the Museum of New Mexico and the School of American Research, Santa Fe, New Mexico..

Krehbiel, Life and Works of an American Artist, by Robert Guinan;  Regnery Gateway, Lanham, MD; 1991; 33 p., [67] p. of plates: ill. (most col.).

Mural Paintings and Bad Boys, article in Architectural Record, January 1908, pp. 77-78.

The Annual Exhibition Record of the Art Institute of Chicago, 1888-1950; Peter Hastings Falk, editor, Andrea Ansell Bien, assistant editor; Sound View Press, 1990; pp. 525-526.

The Annual Exhibition Record of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, 1914-1968. Peter Hastings Falk, editor; 1989; 538 p.

The court of A. Krehbiel: A niche in the landscape of Illinois art, article by Steve Slack, Saturday Magazine, The State Journal Register; September 27, 1980; pp. 8A-9A; Springfield, Illinois.  

The letters and writings of Albert Henry Krehbiel held in the archives of the Krehbiel Corporation, Evanston, Illinois. These letters and writings as well as further archival material on Albert Krehbiel are available on microfilm at the Smithsonian Institution Archives of American Art in Washington, DC, as well as at the Art Institute of Chicago's Ryerson and Burnham Libraries..

      Acknowledgements

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