Background

Arthur Ignatius Keller was born on July 4, 1867 in New York City, New York, United States, the son of Adam and Matilda (Spohr) Keller. His paternal forebears belonged to Cassel, Germany, where his greatgrandfather was burgomeister. On his mother's side he was collaterally descended from the great violinist, Ludwig Spohr.

Education

Keller entered at seventeen the National Academy of Design, where for three years he studied under Professor Wilmarth. Later he followed the rush of American art students to Munich, becoming the pupil of Ludwig von Löfftz.

Career

Keller began his career as a lithographer. One of his first canvases, "At Mass, " was purchased for the Munich Academy. His first adventure into the field of illustration was with the New York Herald. Soon however, he forsook newspapers for book and magazine illustrating, for which work he was in constant demand, taking his place beside Abbey, Rinehart, Smedley, Pyle, Remington, and other figures of the golden age of American illustration. He became the favorite illustrator of S. Weir Mitchell and F. Hopkinson Smith, and illustrated special editions of Bret Harte, Longfellow, Irving, and Locke. "Circumstances diverted him into illustration, " wrote Royal Cortissoz, "but the change of base was more apparent than real. He was essentially a painter. " To masterful technique, to admirable drawing and design, however, he added the fidelity to his author and the dramatic insight belonging to the true illustrator. He delighted in getting his local color or historical settings accurate to the minutest detail, and accumulated for the purpose a considerable library and a notable collection of period costumes and properties.

He was a tireless student of types--physical, racial, professional--and he made countless graphic notes, two volumes of which have been published. "These superb studies in chalk or crayon, done with a flying hand may hold comparison with Watteau, " wrote W. J. Duncan (post). He used the model conscientiously for the figure, and obtained his facial expression by posing his model before a mirror and conjuring up the mood.

He died of pneumonia in New York, at the height of his powers, his death drawing from the critic Cortissoz the comment, "Whenever the best of American illustrators are recalled his name will be held in honor among them. "

Achievements

• Keller had illustrated about 150 books and more than 600 issues of leading magazines. Among his prominent book commissions were A Legend of Sleepy Hollow, by Washington Irving, A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, The Virginian by Owen Wister, and many books of the writer Brett Harte. He received the Hallgarten composition Prize. In New York he won a long series of awards as a painter in oils and watercolors, including the prize for watercolors of the Philadelphia Art Club, 1899; silver medal, Paris Exposition, 1900; bronze medal for drawings, Pan-American Exposition, 1901; Evans Prize of American Water Color Society, 1902; gold medal and silver medals, St. Louis Exposition, 1904; and gold medal, Panama-Pacific Exposition, 1915.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Who Goes There!

    (The Crown Prince is partly right; the majority in the wor...)

  • The Light in the Clearing A Tale of the North Country in the Time of Silas Wright

    (This book was converted from its physical edition to the ...)

  • The Curious Courtship Of Kate Poins: A Romance Of The Regency (1901)

    (This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of th...)

  • The Severed Mantle (1909)

    (This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of th...)

  • Harriet and the Piper

    (This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)

  • The Virginian: A horseman of the plains

    (a classic western)

  • The Valley of Fear (Illustrated)
  • The Bandbox
  • Everybody's Lonesome A True Fairy Story
  • Her Letter His Answer & Her Last Letter

Views

Quotations: "In regards to watercolor work, I would say a fellow must go away in the country or stay at home and paint watercolors constantly and nothing else. "

Membership

Keller was a charter member of the Society of American Illustrators. He was elected its president in 1903, and in 1925 the Society paid him the tribute of a memorial exhibition.

Personality

Quotes from others about the person

• "Keller, was a born artist. By instinct we recognize this at once. His simplest sketch, every stroke of his brush or pencil, is nervous with artistic energy. One feels it pulsating sturdily through all his multifarious work, through his graceful and sinuous drawings, his exquisite watercolors, his crowded and animated oils. His preliminary sketches especially, so fluent, natural, unaffected, flowing straight out of his facile pencil and confessing all it is possible to know of an artist’s talent, prove beyond question that here was a man who was an artist in the full meaning of the word; as the actors used to say, an artist to the fingertips. " - Walter Jack Duncan

Connections

Keller was twice married: on June 20, 1894, to Myra A. C. Hayes, and on June 3, 1908, to Edith Livingston Mason. Six children and his second wife survived him.

Father:

Adam Keller

Mother:

Matilda (Spohr) Keller

Spouse:

Myra A. C. Hayes

Spouse:

Edith Livingston Mason

References

• Arthur Ignatius Keller, 1866-1924: The exhibition, June 4 through September 5, 1988