Carl Gaertner was one of the greatest painters to emerge from the Cleveland School. Born in Cleveland on April 18, 1898, he graduated from East Technical high school in 1918 and attended Western Reserve College. From 1920 to 1923 he studied at the Cleveland School of Art (now the Cleveland Institute of Art) with Henry Keller. In 1922, he entered his first May Show at the Cleveland Museum of Art and was awarded a prize for an industrial oil painting. From 1925 until 1952, he was known as a pillar of the Cleveland School and one of their most prestigious painting instructors.
Gaertner’s subject matter was always drawn from the world around him. Early in his career, he focused on Cleveland and its environs. This interest never left him, but as he matured, his choice of subjects broadened. He painted watercolors and oils of Bermuda in the mid 1920s and began making frequent trips to Provincetown beginning in the 1920’s. Like other Cleveland artists, he culled inspiration from travels within the United States, notably trips through Pittsburgh’s dramatic industrial landscapes and Cambridge Springs in Pennsylvania, to the mountains of West Virginia, and to Cape Cod. From the mid 1940s until his death, he also produced paintings based on sketches made during train rides to visit galleries in New York City.
At the time of his premature death in 1952, Carl Gaertner enjoyed a considerable reputation as a master of American Scene painting. By the 1940s, Gaertner was represented by the venerable Macbeth Gallery in New York City and his paintings were exhibited in shows throughout the United States. In 1944 and 1952, Gaertner received the National Academy of Design’s highest award for individual work in a group exhibition, and his work was exhibited in the Cleveland Museum of Art’s May Show for 27 years. Gaertner’s works are in the collections of many prestigious institutions, including the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Chicago Institute and the Whitney Museum of American Art.
The reflective eye of Gaertner chronicled three decades of Cleveland and the landscapes of the Midwest and its people. It is all there: the growing might of industrial Cleveland; the mass-produced promise of the assembly line, giving way to a dawning awareness of lost freedom and the surrender of individuality; the love affair of Americans with nature and the ideals of Thoreau and Whitman and Frost; and the conflict between that love affair and industrial promise.
Gaertner was just achieving national acclaim at the time of his early death at the age of 54. A resurgence of enthusiasm for Gaertner and his works began in the 1970’s and has steadily increased and incrementally boosted the value of his work, with a fine rare example, “The Popcorn Man” reaching $250,000 at auction.
Works by Carl Frederick Gaertner
St. George, Bermuda #1, 1924 Carl Frederick Gaertner
Barn Buildings Carl Frederick Gaertner
Barn Landscape Carl Frederick Gaertner
Fresh Fish Carl Frederick Gaertner
Hog Slaughter, West Virginia Carl Frederick Gaertner
Hog Slaughter, Winter Provisions Carl Frederick Gaertner
Mill with Waterfall, Chagrin Falls Carl Frederick Gaertner
Still Life with Vases and Glass Jug Carl Frederick Gaertner
Tremont, ca. 1930s Carl Frederick Gaertner
Coastal Scene Carl Frederick Gaertner
A Harbor Scene Carl Frederick Gaertner
Houses on the Coast Carl Frederick Gaertner
Morning Fog Carl Frederick Gaertner
River Bridge, 1935 Carl Frederick Gaertner
Blue Stone Backyard Carl Frederick Gaertner
Farm Landscape, 1940 Carl Frederick Gaertner
Farmyard with Red Barn Carl Frederick Gaertner
Shreve Ridge Cyclone Carl Frederick Gaertner
Flower Garden, Cape Cod Carl Frederick Gaertner
Red Barn Carl Frederick Gaertner
Hog Slaughter, 1941 Carl Frederick Gaertner
Old House, Bermuda, 1941 Carl Frederick Gaertner
Willoughby Coal Yard, 1942 Carl Frederick Gaertner
Two Barns, 1943 Carl Frederick Gaertner
Landscape Carl Frederick Gaertner
Chagrin Valley, 1945 Carl Frederick Gaertner
Winter Rooftops, 1945 Carl Frederick Gaertner
Cape Cod Dunes, 1946 Carl Frederick Gaertner
Rocky Cove, 1947 Carl Frederick Gaertner
Corn Hill Bay, 1948 Carl Frederick Gaertner
Clyde Cove, Moonlight, 1949 Carl Frederick Gaertner
Coastal Landscape Carl Frederick Gaertner
Mining Town Study Carl Frederick Gaertner
Cape Cod Moonlight, 1951 Carl Frederick Gaertner
Tide Wash, 1951 Carl Frederick Gaertner
Woods End Breakwater, 1951 Carl Frederick Gaertner
Coast with Shack Carl Frederick Gaertner
Dunes Carl Frederick Gaertner
Still Life With Sansevieria Carl Frederick Gaertner
Three Figures Carl Frederick Gaertner
Garden Landscape, 1938 Carl Frederick Gaertner
Blue Mountain Gray Sky Carl Frederick Gaertner
Country Stream Carl Frederick Gaertner
Flats Carl Frederick Gaertner
Dune Shacks, 1941 Carl Frederick Gaertner
West Virginia Wash Day Carl Frederick Gaertner
A Bermuda Home, 1941 Carl Frederick Gaertner
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Pair of Lithographs Carl Frederick Gaertner
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Christmas Eve, Public Square at Night, 1928 Carl Frederick Gaertner
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Still Life with Oranges in a Bowl and Two Jugs Carl Frederick Gaertner
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Harbor Fog, c. 1920 Carl Frederick Gaertner
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Steel Mill at Night, c. 1925 Carl Frederick Gaertner
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The Gray Sail, c. 1925 Carl Frederick Gaertner
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The Bay, 1927 Carl Frederick Gaertner
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Barn and Furrows, 1928 Carl Frederick Gaertner
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Still Life with Yellow Vase and Japanese Painting, 1929 Carl Frederick Gaertner
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The Ladle, 1929 Carl Frederick Gaertner
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Blue Barn Carl Frederick Gaertner
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Icy Pond and Shack at Night Carl Frederick Gaertner
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Mills at Chagrin Falls in Winter, ca. 1930s Carl Frederick Gaertner
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Morning Carl Frederick Gaertner
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Provincetown Carl Frederick Gaertner
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The Actress Carl Frederick Gaertner
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The Storm, Bermuda, 1930 Carl Frederick Gaertner
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Tremont Street, ca. 1930s Carl Frederick Gaertner
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The Allegheny River Carl Frederick Gaertner
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Chartreuse House, c. 1930 Carl Frederick Gaertner
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Still Life, 1930 Carl Frederick Gaertner
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Saturday at Chagrin Falls, 1931 Carl Frederick Gaertner
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Shoreline Shacks, 1931 Carl Frederick Gaertner
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St. Georges Bermuda, 1932 Carl Frederick Gaertner
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The Wharf, c. 1938 Carl Frederick Gaertner
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Doan Brook, Cleveland Carl Frederick Gaertner
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Gray House, Cape Cod Carl Frederick Gaertner
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Mill Reflections Carl Frederick Gaertner
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Moonlit Harbor Carl Frederick Gaertner
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New Snow Carl Frederick Gaertner
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Red Barn on a Country Road Carl Frederick Gaertner
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Road out of Town Carl Frederick Gaertner
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Rural Landscape Carl Frederick Gaertner
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Village with Trees Carl Frederick Gaertner
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Ore Docks Carl Frederick Gaertner
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Lumber Mill, 1941 Carl Frederick Gaertner
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Autumn Landscape on the Chagrin River, 1941 Carl Frederick Gaertner
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30 Hours Leave, 1942 Carl Frederick Gaertner
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Sand Pit Quarry, 1942 Carl Frederick Gaertner
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The Watchman, 1942 Carl Frederick Gaertner
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October Snow, 1945 Carl Frederick Gaertner
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Bermuda, 1946 Carl Frederick Gaertner
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The Fisherman, 1946 Carl Frederick Gaertner
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Pine Point Spur, 1947 Carl Frederick Gaertner
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The Green Sea, 1949 Carl Frederick Gaertner
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Firewood, 1949 Carl Frederick Gaertner
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Rock Creek, 1950 Carl Frederick Gaertner
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The Outer Cove, 1951 Carl Frederick Gaertner
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Atwood's Cove, 1951 Carl Frederick Gaertner
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Leavings, 1951 Carl Frederick Gaertner
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Lake Erie with Trees Carl Frederick Gaertner
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Sailboat in Harbor, ca. 1930s Carl Frederick Gaertner
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Forest Scene Carl Frederick Gaertner