Permanent Collection Record
Images
Metadata
Object ID |
1937.10001 |
Collection |
Painting Collection |
Title |
Meditation |
Date |
1879-1883 |
Artist |
Karl Kappes (1861-1943) |
Signature |
KARL KAPPES |
Signature Location |
Bottom of canvas, viewer's right |
Description |
This was the first work of art to enter the ZMA's permanent collection. It was donated to the Zanesville Art Institute, now called the Zanesville Museum of Art, in 1937 by the artist Karl Kappes (1861-1943), the brother of the museum's founder Mrs. Clara Kappes Ayers (1865-1951). Kappes, like many artists of his generation, began his career as an academically trained realist. Born in May 1861, in Putnam, Ohio, Charles A. Kappes developed an early interest in art. By 1879, at the age of 18, he had enrolled at the McMicken School of Drawing and Design, in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he likely painted this portrait. By 1883 and following in the footsteps of other young aspiring Midwestern artists during the last several decades of the nineteenth century, especially those with German heritage, Kappes travelled to Munich, Germany and enrolled at the Academy. During this period, he also Germanified his name, changing the spelling to Karl Kappes. Already a skilled draftsman, Kappes demonstrated his sensitivity as a portrait artist capturing the essence of sitters young and old, grand and humble, which he put to good use around 1900 as an art pottery decorator for Weller Pottery Company (1872-1948). In this painting, notice how Kappes draws attention to the woman's features and expressions, evoking her meditative character. |
Medium |
Oil, Canvas |
Technique |
Painted |
Height (in) |
47.250 |
Width (in) |
39.250 |
Culture |
American |
School |
Realism |
Place of Origin |
Zanesville, Ohio, United States |
Credit Line |
Gift of Karl Kappes |
People |
Kappes, Karl Karl Kappes Collection |
Search Terms |
American Art American Artists American Paintings Clothing / Dress Elderly Figures, Women Munich Academy Munich School Ohio Art Ohio Artists Oil Paintings Paintings Portraits Realism Zanesville Artists Zanesville, Ohio |
Location |
On view in the Dr. and Mrs. Carl A. Minning, Jr. Hallway Gallery, 1st Floor |