John Fery

Johann Nepomuk Levy was born on March 25, 1859, in Strasswalchen, Austria. Later in his life he would become the artist John Fery and earn himself a well-deserved place in the history of American art. Known for his dramatic panoramas of the wild and greatly unknown American West, Fery’s work captures a time and feeling of excitement and exploration of the unknown as the West began to open up. In addition to contributing to the panoramic art movement of his time, many of his works can also be considered historical documentation of subjects such as Indian villages and the Seattle coastline.

Details of his early life in Austria are varied, including the nature of his artistic training. Some sources claim that his father encouraged his artistic talents at an early age and enrolled him at the Vienna Academy of Art, while others say he was self-taught. In the early 1880s, Fery married a Swiss woman by the name of Mary Rose Kraemer, and in 1886 the couple had a daughter and immigrated to the United States. Upon arrival, Johann legally changed his name to John Fery to better assimilate.

It is possible that the couple first moved to Ohio where their second daughter was born in 1886, but it has also been reported that the family lived in upstate New York and New Jersey around this time as well. Fery returned to Europe for the first time in 1890 and realized Europe’s great interest in the American West. The artist visited his home continent twice more to organize two hunting expeditions to the West for wealthy European sportsmen in 1893 and 1895, traveling to New Mexico, Arizona, California, Oregon, and Wyoming.

By the late nineteenth-century there was a great demand for paintings of the newly opened “Wild West” in the dramatic, panoramic style of the Hudson River School, including the works of well-known artists such as Albert Bierstadt and Thomas Moran. In the late 1890s, Fery and his family moved to Jackson Lake, Wyoming where he painted the area at least 35 times. This relocation marked the beginning of his career as an artist specializing in the panoramic style. Using broad strokes and a color palate that changed from somber, dark hues of the German style to bright hues of an American Impressionistic style towards the end of his career, his paintings glorified the wild side of nature and often included elk, horses, bears and other wildlife. Human presence was rarely represented. In 1903, Fery moved to Milwaukee and established a studio in a building with many other German and Austrian artists where he marketed his work depicting Wyoming and other places in the West. It was at this time that his career really took off when his paintings where noticed by the Hill family, owners of the Great Northern Railway- the only route connecting the Midwest (from St. Paul) to Seattle.

James Hill hired Fery for the railway’s “See America First” campaign. The artist was commissioned to paint dramatic, wild, and mountainous landscapes depicting various scenic stops along the Great Northern Railway route to Seattle, including the company’s various hotels and lodges along the way. His paintings, averaging a minimum 10x12 feet, ultimately served as advertisements for prospective travelers, displayed in railroad stations across the country. Fery set up a new studio in St. Paul and produced 347 major works for the Great Northern Railway. He produced these paintings during the winters after spending summers sketching in the West. The majority of his works depicted Glacier National Park in Wyoming, the Tetons, and the Rockies.

When his campaign with the Great Northern Railway ended, Fery did some freelance work in Salt Lake City where his paintings were sold by local dealers, then moved back to Milwaukee and painted various scenes of Wisconsin and other parts of the Midwest. Finally he settled with his family in Washington State on Orcas Island. Unfortunately, in 1929, his cabin burned down and a great number of his paintings and sketches were destroyed. Only an estimated 150 paintings still exist today, making them a coveted and the desirable piece of American history.

Written and researched by Alexandra Nilles.


MIR Appraisal Services, Inc.
Principal Appraiser: Farhad Radfar, ISA AM
307 N. Michigan Avenue, Suite 308
Chicago, IL 60601
(312) 814-8510

MIR Appraisal Services, Inc., is located just steps from the Art Institute of Chicago and the Chicago Cultural Center; please do give us a ring to set up an appointment for a verbal evaluation of your most prized works of art.

Sources:

http://www.hockadaymuseum.org

http://www.wildlifeart.org/artists/artistDetails/index.php?aID=318

http://www.wisconsinart.org/archives/artist/john-c-fery/profile-45.aspx

http://www.tfaoi.com/aa/3aa/3aa118.htm

Albert Krehbiel

Circling the Wagons

Accomplished student, respected artist, and professor at the Art Institute of Chicago, Albert Krehbiel left his mark in Illinois. Born in Denmark, Iowa, Krehbiel moved to Chicago in 1902 to study at the Art Institute of Chicago. In 1903 he was granted a scholarship to study at the Académie Julian in Paris under neo-classical painter Jean Paul Laurens. While attending the Académie, Krehbiel became the first (and only) American to be awarded four gold medals, as well as the coveted Prix de Rome. He traveled throughout Europe for another two years where he was exposed to Impressionism, a style that would influence his later work.

Krehbiel returned to Chicago in 1906 and took a teaching position at the Art Institute. Shortly after, he was commissioned to design and paint a mural for the Chicago Juvenile Court, and then won a competition to design and paint eleven wall murals and two ceiling murals at the Illinois Supreme court in Springfield. Until completion in 1911, Krehbiel taught only summer sessions at the Institute. He resumed teaching full-time in 1911 after buying a barn next to his property in Park Ridge, a suburb of Chicago, which he turned into a studio.

After purchasing this property, Krehbiel took advantage of the Midwest’s natural beauty and changed direction in his painting, straying from his neo-classical education to focus on outdoor scenes and landscape. It was at this time when elements of Impressionism began to appear in his work, particularly in the bright hues he incorporated and the importance he placed on painting the outdoors only in natural light.

Impressionism became even more present in his work in the following years. Although Krehbiel, his wife and children began spending their summers, beginning in 1918 and continuing into the early 1920s, at an art colony in Santa Monica, CA, his time and main focus was spent producing works for the Santa Fe Art Colony in Santa Fe, NM, of which he was an exhibiting member and respected artist. Here, he presented vibrant illustrations of the Southwest skies and landscape.Chicago Elevated Train

In 1926, while teaching at the Art Institute, Krehbiel helped establish the Chicago Art Institute Summer School of Painting in Saugatuch, MI. He opened his own summer school, the AK Studio, shortly after. His school was intended to focus on the landscape of the Midwest, especially the forests and rivers that he himself had come to love. After the founding of the summer schools, Krehbiel began to paint cityscapes, as well; the Michigan Avenue Bridge and Chicago River being his most repeated subject matters. His cityscapes were defined by their blocks of solid, bright colors.Michigan Avenue Bridge

From this American Impressionist phase, Krehbiel moved on to focus on the human form, using the models from his drawing classes to create synchromistic and abstract figures. Krehbiel had been greatly inspired by a Pablo Picasso exhibition at the Art Institute in 1940. He expanded his media to chalk, pastels, and watercolor and used them to continue this new direction for both figure drawing and land and cityscapes. Some of his new and colorful geometric forms even verged on cubism. He called these compositions “Picasso…par AHK”, intended only for himself and his friends.

Untitled

Albert Krehbiel died of a heart attack on June 29, 1945 after an astounding 39 years of teaching at the Art Institute of Chicago and 32 years at the Armour Institute of Technology. He was known for his incessant painting, braving the elements of the Midwest year-round to capture the wild forests and rivers as well as the streets of Chicago, his style evolving from neoclassical to Impressionist to synchromistic. During his lifetime, his work was exhibited in Paris at both the American Art Association and Salon des Artistes Francais in 1905, the Museo Nacional de Pintura Y Esculturs in Madrid in 1906, as well as three exhibitions at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and thirty-two at the Art Institute of Chicago to name only a few.




Works cited:
http://www.krehbielart.com/about_the_artist.htm
http://www.theartgallery.com.au/arteducation/greatartists/Krehbiel/about/index.html
http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/collection/krehalbe.htm
http://mimsy.itd.depaul.edu/art/main.php?module=objects


Written and researched by Alexandra Nilles.


MIR Appraisal Services, Inc.
Principal Appraiser: Farhad Radfar, ISA AM
307 N. Michigan Avenue, Suite 308
Chicago, IL 60601
(312) 814-8510

MIR Appraisal Services, Inc., is located just steps from the Art Institute of Chicago and the Chicago Cultural Center; please do give us a ring to set up an appointment for a verbal evaluation of your most prized works of art.