Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Koehler, Robert

KOEHLER, Robert, painter, b. in Hamburg, Germany, 28 Nov., 1850. He was brought to the United States in 1854, educated in Milwaukee, Wis., and apprenticed to a lithographer in 1866. He exercised that trade in Pittsburg, Pa., and in New York city, where he studied drawing in the night classes of the National academy of design. In 1873 he went to Europe to study with means furnished by George Ehret, of New York, whose attention had been drawn to the young artists's ambition and capabilities. He was a pupil in the Munich art academy, under Ludwig Loefitz and Franz Defregger. He began to exhibit in the National academy, New York, in 1877. In 1885 he took charge of a private school of art in that city. He organized the American department of the International art exhibition at Munich in 1883, and was appointed by the Bavarian authorities to act in the same capacity in the exhibition of 1888. His works, which have been few, manifest study and care, and in technique and treatment are good examples of the Munich school. The principal ones are “Holy-day Occupation” (1881); “Her Only Support” (1882); “The Socialist,” a German agitator delivering a harangue (1883); and “The Strike,” a large composition which attracted attention on the walls of the National academy in 1886.