Permanent Collection Record
Images
Metadata
Object ID |
1945.10174 |
Collection |
Painting Collection |
Title |
Portrait of Edward M. Ayers, Founder of the Zanesville Museum of Art |
Date |
Before 1943 |
Artist |
Karl Kappes (1861-1943) |
Signature |
K. KAPPES |
Signature Location |
Partial signature on viewer's bottom left |
Description |
Like many artists of his generation, Karl Kappes (1861-1943) began his career as an academically trained realist and ended it as an enthusiastic Impressionist. Born in May 1861, in Zanesville, Ohio, Charles A. Kappes developed an early interest in art, which prompted his parents to enroll him in drawing classes with local Ohio artist Charles Craig (1846-1931). 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 and enrolled at the Academy. The Bavarian city had gained a distinguished reputation among artists as a cultural destination with a state-sponsored art academy. It was also praised in America for its high artistic standards, thorough instruction, and the relative low cost of tuition, with foreign students paying the same fees as Germans. Upon his arrival at the Academy in November 1883, in a letter home to his parents he described being one of "seventy Americans here all attending the art school…" out of several hundred students. Already a skilled draftsman, Kappes prepared an examination drawing that qualified his entry into the Antikenklasse. He spent less than a year drawing from antique plaster models before securing a position in the Naturklasse in April 1884, where he drew and painted from live models and demonstrated his sensitivity as a portrait artist. Kappes's Munich period is defined by his portrait drawings and paintings, which were deeply influenced by Wilhelm von Diez and Ludwig von Loefftz, both popular at the Academy for their unorthodox instruction and their embrace of the Dutch masters. Loefftz, in particular, had a flare for drama. He preferred elderly models, which were lit dramatically by candlelight. In Kappes's earliest portraits, sitters young and old, grand and humble, emerge from an opaque and shadowy background. Using a reserved color palette and vivid lighting, Kappes draws attention to the nuances of the models' features and expressions in order to evoke their character. While aspects of Kappes's style foreshadowed his future Impressionist tendencies, including his rapid approach to painting, loose brushwork, thick application of pigment, and the canvases' luminous surface quality, his Munich Academy training continued to have a profound impact on his work throughout his sixty-year career. |
Medium |
Oil, Canvas |
Technique |
Painted |
Height (in) |
34.750 |
Width (in) |
30.750 |
Culture |
American |
School |
Munich School, Realism |
Place of Origin |
Zanesville, Ohio, United States |
Credit Line |
Gift of Karl Kappes |
Source Collection |
Karl Kappes Collection, Edward M. and Clara K. Ayers Collection |
People |
Kappes, Elizabeth Greiner Karl Kappes Collection Edward M. and Clara K. Ayers Collection |
Search Terms |
American Art American Artists American Paintings Clothing / Dress Figures, Men Munich School Ohio Art Ohio Artists Oil Paintings Paintings Portraits Zanesville Artists Zanesville, Ohio Zanesville Citizens |
Location |
Not on view |