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for Carl Frederick Gaertner
American, 1898 - 1952
Gaertner attended the East Technical High School in Cleveland where he studied machine design. He then attended Western Reserve University (1918) and worked as an instructor in drawing at the South High School in Cleveland. He enrolled at the Cleveland School of Art where he studied under H. G. Keller (1920-23), and taught at John Carroll University (1920-24).
Gaertner exhibited his work in the annual exhibitions of Work by Cleveland Artists and Craftsman (ABG: Craftsmen?) and began teaching in the night school of the Cleveland School of Art in 1925. In 1927 he was teaching both evening and day classes, and thus he continued until his death in 1952. He also taught at the John Huntington Polytechnic Institute (1929-30), the Grauer School, White Sulpher Spring, West Virginia (summer 1933) and at the Toledo Museum School (1947-49).
Gaertner's first love was the landscape, and his favorite aspect of it was the industrial scene. While he never went abroad he spent almost every summer travelling to specific sites which he would study thoroughly with his pencil and brush. As early as 1922 he made a trip to New England; in 1925 he made his first trip to Provincetown, which was repeated again in 1930; he spent the summer of 1926 in New York, and in 1931 traveled to Quebec and Saguenay; in 1932 he vacationed in Cambridge Springs, PA; and in 1934 to Washington, DC, and Norfolk, Virginia. In 1935 he purchased a farm in Chagrin Valley, Ohio where he did numerous studies; and in 1938 made a special study of industrial Pittsburg. In 1943 he began yearly trips to New York, travelling by the Empires State Express, which gave him the opportunity of sketching the scenery from the train window.
Gaertner exhibited at Ruth Goulter Gallery (1934) and at Macbeth Gallery (1945, 1947, 1950, 1952). He served as president of the Cleveland Society of Artists (1935-38). He married Margaret Kauft in 1924 whom in divorced in 1929. In 1938 he married Adele Potter.
Gaertner's landscape work, which often includes buildings along the waterfront or the industrial section of a town or city, are often compositions set up by playing horizontals off against verticals. The human figure appears only occasionally for scale, compositional rhythm or local interest. The absence of human element lends a somewhat lonely and melancholy flavor to his work.
His painting "Spring Comes on the Hudson" is in the collection of the Whitney Museum.
Gaertner was nominated to the NAD by Robert Brackman. [DBD adds: Gaertner died before presenting ANA qualifying portrait; Council voted to get one of him; see NAD minutes November 11, 1952]
Gaertner exhibited his work in the annual exhibitions of Work by Cleveland Artists and Craftsman (ABG: Craftsmen?) and began teaching in the night school of the Cleveland School of Art in 1925. In 1927 he was teaching both evening and day classes, and thus he continued until his death in 1952. He also taught at the John Huntington Polytechnic Institute (1929-30), the Grauer School, White Sulpher Spring, West Virginia (summer 1933) and at the Toledo Museum School (1947-49).
Gaertner's first love was the landscape, and his favorite aspect of it was the industrial scene. While he never went abroad he spent almost every summer travelling to specific sites which he would study thoroughly with his pencil and brush. As early as 1922 he made a trip to New England; in 1925 he made his first trip to Provincetown, which was repeated again in 1930; he spent the summer of 1926 in New York, and in 1931 traveled to Quebec and Saguenay; in 1932 he vacationed in Cambridge Springs, PA; and in 1934 to Washington, DC, and Norfolk, Virginia. In 1935 he purchased a farm in Chagrin Valley, Ohio where he did numerous studies; and in 1938 made a special study of industrial Pittsburg. In 1943 he began yearly trips to New York, travelling by the Empires State Express, which gave him the opportunity of sketching the scenery from the train window.
Gaertner exhibited at Ruth Goulter Gallery (1934) and at Macbeth Gallery (1945, 1947, 1950, 1952). He served as president of the Cleveland Society of Artists (1935-38). He married Margaret Kauft in 1924 whom in divorced in 1929. In 1938 he married Adele Potter.
Gaertner's landscape work, which often includes buildings along the waterfront or the industrial section of a town or city, are often compositions set up by playing horizontals off against verticals. The human figure appears only occasionally for scale, compositional rhythm or local interest. The absence of human element lends a somewhat lonely and melancholy flavor to his work.
His painting "Spring Comes on the Hudson" is in the collection of the Whitney Museum.
Gaertner was nominated to the NAD by Robert Brackman. [DBD adds: Gaertner died before presenting ANA qualifying portrait; Council voted to get one of him; see NAD minutes November 11, 1952]
