Gustav Kruell

{{Short description|German-American engraver}} {{Infobox artist | honorific_prefix = | name = Gustav Kruell | honorific_suffix = | image = | alt = | caption = | native_name = | native_name_lang = | birth_name =  | birth_date = {{Birth date|1843|10|31}} | birth_place = Düsseldorf, Germany | death_date = {{Death date and age|1907|01|02|1843|10|31}} | death_place = San Luis Obispo, California | resting_place = | resting_place_coordinates =  | education = | alma_mater = | known_for = Co-founder of the Society of American Wood Engravers, 1881 | notable_works = "Rent Day", "Harriet Beecher Stowe", "Abraham Lincoln" | style = | movement = | spouse = Clara Kuhn Kruell | awards =  | elected = | patrons = | memorials = | website =  | module = }} '''Gustav Kruell''' (October 31, 1843 – January 2, 1907) was a German-born American wood engraver who specialized in portraits.<ref name="nytobit">{{Cite news |date=January 4, 1907 |title=Gustav Kruell |work=The New York Times |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F00A15FA385512738DDDAD0894D9405B878CF1D3}}</ref> In 1881, he was a co-founder of the Society of American Wood Engravers.<ref name=nytobit/>

==Life and work== He was born in Düsseldorf, Germany, on October 31, 1843. He studied art under Richard Brend'amour. In 1873, at the age of 30, he emigrated to the United States to work in New York City for several leading periodicals.<ref name="nytart">{{Cite news |date=April 25, 1895 |title=Wood Engravings by Kruell |work=The New York Times |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FB091EF63A5416738DDDAC0A94DC405B8585F0D3}}</ref>

The following year, he was joined by his wife Clara Kuhn Kruell (of Stuttgart, Germany), their two daughters and their two sons. They settled in East Orange, New Jersey.<ref name=nie>{{Cite NIE|wstitle=Kruell, Gustav|year=1905}}</ref> There, he came under the influence of the famed engraver, William James Linton.

He died in San Luis Obispo, California, on January 2, 1907.

In 1929, Ralph Clifton Smith edited a ninety-eight page collection of Kruell's works called ''Gustav Kruell, American portrait engraver on wood''.

Currently, the British Museum houses over 12 works by Gustav Kruell; including a self-portrait, a portrait of his own father, as well as portraits of Auguste Rodin, Wendell Phillips Garrison, James Russell Lowell and Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, and scenes such as "A Fishmarket in Venice", "The Flight of Night" and "The Discoverer".

The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts currently houses over 6 works by Gustav Kruell; including portraits of William M. Chase, and Walter Shirlaw.

==Exhibition history== *1890, Kruell's first exhibit was at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, which included portraits of Charles Darwin and William Lloyd Garrison.<ref>Exhibition of the Society of American Wood-Engravers (1890). Boston: Alfred Mudge & Son</ref> *1893, World's Columbian Exposition (Chicago), (medal) *1889, Exposition Universelle (Paris) *1895, Kruell exhibited more than 200 works at New York City's Keppel Gallery on East Sixteenth Street.<ref name=nytart/> *1901, Pan-American Exposition (Buffalo)(silver medal) *1904, Louisiana Purchase Exposition (St Louis), (gold medal)

==Selected works== <gallery mode=packed heights=200> File:Antoine-Louis Barye at the age of thirty-five.jpg|Antoine-Louis Barye (1892) File:Portrait of Fletcher Harper, engraved by Gustav Kruell.jpg|Fletcher Harper (1889) File:American art and American art collections; essays on artistic subjects (1889) (14596738497).jpg|The Baptism of Virginia Dare, from ''American Art'' by Walter Montgomery File:Walter Besant, 1890.png|Sir Walter Besant (1890) File:Wilhelmine Clauss-Szarvady (Freya 07-1867 S 261).jpg|Wilhelmine Clauss-Szarvady (1867) </gallery>

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== {{commons category|Gustav Kruell}} * [https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/search?keyword=Gustav&keyword=Kruell Works by Kruell] @ the British Museum * [https://harvardartmuseums.org/collections/person/32270?person=32270 Works by Kruell] @ the Harvard Art Museums

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kruell, Gustav}} Category:1843 births Category:1907 deaths Category:19th-century American engravers Category:Emigrants from the German Empire to the United States