1814 - 1889
While still an infant, Kellogg was brought to Cincinnati by his parents and spent part of his youth with them at the experimental community of New Harmony, Indiana. When he was seventeen, he began his career as a portrait painter in Cincinnati. He had received instruction from Federick Eckstein and encouragement from Eckstein's better known pupil, the sculptor Hiram Powers. Kellogg made a trip east in 1833, seeking portrait commissions in New Jersey and Washington, D. C., and so impressed Martin Van Buren that the president gave him an appointment to West Point in 1838. The following year, Kellogg returned to Cincinnati to continue his career as an artist. His reputation at this point rested on portraits of famous men such as Andrew Jackson, James Polk, and Van Buren.
In 1842, Kellogg went to the Near East where he befriended and traveled with Austin Henry Layard, a famous archeologist. In the countries surrounding the Mediteranean, Kellogg combined his artistic talents with his newly-acquired anthropological interests by recording the features of ethnic types in drawings and paintings, some of which he exhibited at the academy in Florence.
Kellogg quickly became a recognized expert on the Near East and this, together with their acquaintance during the early days in Cincinnati, prompted Hiram Powers to hire Kellogg in 1847 to be his American agent. Kellogg's primary job was to promote Powers' best known sculpture, The Greek Slave. Kellogg's entrepreneurial skills were largely responsible for the sculpture's successful tour, an event which had been threatened by prudish protests against the exhibition of a nude figure.
Kellogg spent the 1850s in Florence, Paris, and London, and in 1858 married Celia Logan, sister of the actress Eliza Logan and the author Olive Logan. Kellogg remained in Europe until 1865 but was settled in Washington, D. C., by 1870. Never one to remain inactive, the aging artist joined the Texas Land and Copper Company in 1872 as the official artist of an exploratory expedition to Texas. He spent his later years as an art consultant and died in Toledo where he had moved in 1888 to be near his daughter.
Kellogg never resided in New York for any length of time; therefore, due to membership restrictions in effect at the time, he was not eligible for full membership in the National Academy. Nevertheless, he occasionally exhibited works in the Academy's annual exhibitions between 1839 and 1866, mostly figural paintings related to his travels in the Near East. According to an unidentified clipping among his papers, he rented or was given a room in the Academy's building on Broadway to use as his studio early in 1850.
In 1842, Kellogg went to the Near East where he befriended and traveled with Austin Henry Layard, a famous archeologist. In the countries surrounding the Mediteranean, Kellogg combined his artistic talents with his newly-acquired anthropological interests by recording the features of ethnic types in drawings and paintings, some of which he exhibited at the academy in Florence.
Kellogg quickly became a recognized expert on the Near East and this, together with their acquaintance during the early days in Cincinnati, prompted Hiram Powers to hire Kellogg in 1847 to be his American agent. Kellogg's primary job was to promote Powers' best known sculpture, The Greek Slave. Kellogg's entrepreneurial skills were largely responsible for the sculpture's successful tour, an event which had been threatened by prudish protests against the exhibition of a nude figure.
Kellogg spent the 1850s in Florence, Paris, and London, and in 1858 married Celia Logan, sister of the actress Eliza Logan and the author Olive Logan. Kellogg remained in Europe until 1865 but was settled in Washington, D. C., by 1870. Never one to remain inactive, the aging artist joined the Texas Land and Copper Company in 1872 as the official artist of an exploratory expedition to Texas. He spent his later years as an art consultant and died in Toledo where he had moved in 1888 to be near his daughter.
Kellogg never resided in New York for any length of time; therefore, due to membership restrictions in effect at the time, he was not eligible for full membership in the National Academy. Nevertheless, he occasionally exhibited works in the Academy's annual exhibitions between 1839 and 1866, mostly figural paintings related to his travels in the Near East. According to an unidentified clipping among his papers, he rented or was given a room in the Academy's building on Broadway to use as his studio early in 1850.
