Karl Albert Buehr (1866-1952)
Buehr was one of seven sons born to a prosperous German family who emigrated to America and settled in Chicago in 1869. He was first exposed to his signature style of Impressionism in 1888 when he enrolled in night classes at the Art Institute of Chicago. He remained a student there until 1897 and was recognized in a Chicago Times Herald editorial of June 13, 1897 as one of the Institute’s most outstanding pupils.
In 1899, he resumed his art studies, this time with Frank Duveneck. He exhibited a painting at the Paris Salon of 1900 and studied at the Academie Julian with Raphael Collin for two years.
In 1904, Buehr received a bronze medal at the St. Louis Universal Exposition, then in 1905 Buehr and his family were able to move to France, thanks to a wealthy Chicago patron. After 1909 he began spending summers at Giverny, near the home of Impressionist leader Claude Monet, and by 1912 Buehr was listing that village as his home address.
Prior to this period, Buehr had developed a quasi-impressionistic style, but after 1909, and his first summer at Giverny, Buehr’s work became decidedly characteristic of that plein-air style and he began focusing on female subjects posed out-of-doors. One of Buehr’s good friends and associates at Giverny was Frederick Frieseke, and he also became well acquainted with other renowned expatriate America Impressionists such as Richard Miller, Theodore Earl Butler, and Lawton Parker. It seems likely that Buehr met Monet, since, according to George Buehr, the painter’s son, his own daughter Kathleen and Monet’s granddaughter, Lili Butler, were playmates.
Information courtesy of Shannon’s Fine Art Auctioneers