Karl Albert Buehr (1866 -1952)

Born in 1865 in Germany, Karl Albert Buehr was one of seven sons whose family emigrated to America and settled in Chicago in 1869. He began his career while working at a lithographic firm near the Art Institute of Chicago. He took a job in the shipping department and enrolled in night classes at the Institute from 1888-1897, he graduated with honors in 1894. After completing his studies he was invited to stay and teach.

Buehr showed early promise. In 1894 a critic wrote: "Karl Albert Buehr is one of the strongest of the Art Institute’s pupils. His work can safely be placed among the best… and would hold its own in any collection composed of the works of painters of established reputation.

In 1899 he was in Paris with Frank Duveneck, his studies also put him at the Académie Julian with Raphael Collin; 1902 Académie Colarossi;and in 1907-1909 at the London School of Art with Frank Brangwyn.

He spent many summers painting in Giverny. He painted a number of typical Giverny subjects of women in outdoor landscape. In 1928-29, he was a guest artist at Stanford University."

While in France he became close friends with Frederick Frieseke whom he knew in Chicago and Richard Miller, the leading members of the American art community in Giverny. While his children played with Monet’s grandchildren, the two never met. Buehr had come to Giverny because of his association with Henry Salem Hubbell. The two shared the patronage of Lydia Coonley Ward from Chicago. Buehr exhibited widely in Europe and also served in the U.S. Cavalry during the Spanish-American War. In Chicago he became a highly respected teacher at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and one of the city's most popular painters. Buehr died in Chicago in 1952.