Name/Title
Bird Boat Builder by Albert KrehbielEntry/Object ID
2012.01.01Description
Albert Krehbiel, "Bird Boat Builder", c. 1938 - Oil on board, framed and matted.
The painting depicts the rustic boat house, a ship on blocks, and an old truck decked with snow on a gray, winter day. Ghostly bare trees fill the background.
The finish on this painting is almost like plaster. There are no brush strokes, but rather, the finish is "built up" with layers of paint or gesso. This gives the artist the ability to "scratch" into this finish and to "wash out" the colors. In this case, the technique is used to create the illusion of grey winter air. Krehbiel, one the Chicago's best-known artists, spent many winters in Saugatuck.Type of Painting
EaselContext
Carl Bird's boat building shop was located on Francis Street, between Butler and Water Streets. The shop was an old shed that had been brought from the old school property on "the hill". Bird built custom wooden boats until 1968. The building has been demolished.
Olivet College - notes on the artist:
"Born in Denmark, Iowa, Albert Krehbiel grew up in Newton, Kansas. Graduating from Bethel College in 1895, he went on to enroll at the Art Institute of Chicago. In 1903, after winning a Traveling Scholarship, he left for Paris to study at the Academie Julian under Jean-Paul Laurens, an instructor who encouraged the strong use of color. Krehbiel returned home to become an instructor at the Art Institute for thirty-nine years, while also teaching at the Armour Institute from 1913 until his death. For a number of years, the artist maintained a home in Saugatuck, Michigan, where beginning in 1926, he taught at the Ox-Bow Summer School.
Stylistically, he began as a traditional academic and moved from impressionism to abstraction. His appeal led one critic to comment: "He is best known...as the poet-painter of winter, for he liked to paint scenes...when the snow was falling and mingled with his colors." Much of his reputation has been lost as the artist never sold his paintings and stored them in his studio located in Park Ridge, Illinois."Collection
ArtworksCataloged By
VanderJagt, AnnaAcquisition
Accession
2012.01Acquisition Method
DonationMade/Created
Artist
Krehbiel, Albert Henry 1873-1945Date made
1930 - 1945Notes
Technique: gessoInscription/Signature/Marks
Notes
Signed Name: Albert H. Krehbiel
Signature Location: bottom rightLexicon
Search Terms
Winter scene, Boathouse, Bird Boat, Boat house, Krehbiel, Albert, Ox-Bow, OxbowDimensions
Height
23 inWidth
24 inDimension Notes
Frame Size: 29.5l x 30wLocation
Shelf
AC bay 07Room
Art Conservation RoomRelationships
Related Person or Organization
Person or Organization
Krehbiel, Albert Henry 1873-1945, 615 Water/Utility Building/Bird's Boat WorkshopExhibition
Curator’s Choice ExhibitInterpretative Labels
Label
Albert Henry Krehbiel
1873 - 1945
Bird Boat Builder
c. 1938 | oil on canvas
Notes: Krehbiel was born in Denmark, Iowa. His father was a carriage and buggy maker. He graduated from Bethel College, Newton in 1897, the Topeka School of Design and Painting, and the Art Institute of Chicago from 1897 – 1902. In 1903, Albert traveled to Paris to study at the Academie Julian with Jean Paul Laurens and returned to Chicago in 1906 and taught at the Art Institute for the next 29 years. Krehbiel also taught at the Ox-Bow Summer School of Painting in Saugatuck, Michigan.
The finish on this painting is almost like plaster. There are no brush strokes, but rather, the finish is “built up” with layers of paint or gesso. This gives the artist the ability to “scratch” into the finish and to “wash out” the colors. In this case the technique is used to create the illusion of grey, winter air.
Carl Bird’s boatbuilding shop was located on Francis Street, between Butler and Water Streets. The shop was an old shed that had been brought from the school property on the hill. Bird built custom wooden boats until 1968. The building has been demolished.
Collection: Saugatuck Douglas History Center
Gift of: The Krehbiel Family
Accession: 2012.01.01General Notes
Note
Status: OK
Status By: Mary Voss
Status Date: 2012-01-09Note
https://sdhistoricalsociety.org/publications/NLHist/P89.php
A wintertime painting of Carl Bird boat shop which was a recent gift to the permanent collection of the museum was just one of many that Chicago-area painter Albert H. Krehbiel did of Saugatuck snow and winter scenes. As recorded in this 1938 letter to his son, Evans, Krehbiel truly enjoyed the solitude and muted colors of winter. As the letterhead would indicate Krehbiel made the Maplewood his winter headquarters. He first visited Saugatuck in 1900 and taught at OxBow from 1926 to 1931 when he opened the AK Studio, just north of the Tourist Home hotel (now the site of Ship 'n Shore).Note
From 2008 SDHS museum exhibit "13 Moments in Time: The Artist as Storyteller"
Winter Scene
Albert H. Krehbiel
Oil, 1938
6 of 13
Summer visitors often wonder what Saugatuck is like in the wintertime. Albert Krehbiel, who had taught summer classes in town, began returning in the winter to see for himself and discovered that nature paints winter "in monochrome tints." He enjoyed cold weather plein air painting.
This is a village scene which features a small building on Mary Street, a former high school woodshed, which Carl Bird used to construct small boats until the middle 1960s. Other Saugatuck wintertime activities include skiing, iceboating, dog sled races and sledding.
Albert H. Krehbiel (1873-1945) visited Saugatuck in 1900 and returned, at least annually, nearly every year until his death. He taught at Ox-Bow, then opened the AK Studio, in a small square building north of the Mt. Baldhead Hotel.
Saugatuck-Douglas Historical Society Collection, gift of the Krehbiel familyCreate Date
January 9, 2012Update Date
September 3, 2024
