Cleveland Museum of Art

Wisdom and Destiny

Henry Keller

Date

1913

Medium

oil on canvas

Culture

America, Ohio, Cleveland

Department

American Painting and Sculpture

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

Henry Keller championed modern art in Cleveland through lectures, teaching, and the example of his own work. Wisdom and Destiny , based on an essay by the Belgian writer Maurice Maeterlinck, features the two allegorical figures at the right, while a carefree shepherd at the left seems oblivious to their existence. The painting was featured in the famed Armory Show of 1913, a large-scale traveling exhibition often credited with introducing the American public to avant-garde art. Because of the critical success surrounding Wisdom and Destiny , Keller was commissioned to create a 70-foot mural of the composition for Cleveland City Hall. However, he resentfully withdrew from the project when asked to paint clothing on the nude figure. Henry Keller's cousin once reminisced, "He is the only noted artist who doesn’t smoke, that I ever heard of."

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