Karl Albert Buehr


Karl Albert Buehr was a painter born in Germany.
Buehr was born in Feuerbach - near Stuttgart. He was the son of Frederick Buehr and Henrietta Doh. He moved to Chicago with his parents and siblings in the 1880s. In Chicago, young Karl worked at various jobs until he was employed by a lithograph company near the Art Institute of Chicago. Introduced to art at work, Karl paid regular visits to the Art Institute, where he found part-time employment, enabling him to enroll in night classes. Later, working at the Institute as a night watchman, he had a unique opportunity to study the masters and actually posted sketchings that blended in favorably with student's work. Having studied under John H. Vanderpoel, Buehr graduated with honors, while his work aroused such admiration that he was offered a teaching post there, which he maintained for many years thereafter. He graduated from the Art Inst. of Chicago and served in the IL Cav in the Spanish–American War. Mary Hess became Karl's wife—she was a student of his and an accomplished artist in her own right. In 1922, he was elected into the National Academy of Design as an Associate member.

Art Studies in Europe

In 1904, Buehr received a bronze medal at the St. Louis Universal Exposition, then, in 1905, Buehr and his family moved to France, thanks to a wealthy Chicago patron, and they spent the following year in Taormina, Sicily, where the artist painted local subjects, executing both genre subjects and landscapes as well as time in Venice. Buehr spent at least some time in Paris, where he worked with Raphaël Collin at the Académie Julian.

Giverny and American Impressionism

Prior to this time, Buehr had developed a quasi-impressionistic style, but after 1909, when he began spending summers near Monet in Giverny, his work became decidedly characteristic of that plein-air style but he began focusing on female subjects posed out-of-doors. He remained for some time in Giverny, and here he became well-acquainted with other well known expatriate America impressionists such as Richard Miller, Theodore Earl Butler, Frederick Frieseke, and Lawton Parker. It seems likely that Buehr met Monet, since his own daughter Kathleen and Monet’s granddaughter, Lili Butler, were playmates, according to George Buehr, the painter’s son. His other daughter Lydia died before adulthood due to diabetes. He returned to Chicago at the onset of World War I and taught at The Art Inst for many years. One of his noted pupils at the Art Institute was Archibald Motley, Jr. the famous African American "Harlem" Renaissance painters. Motley credits Buehr with being one of his finest teachers and one who encouraged his style.

Teaching Career in Chicago

Buehr remained an expressive colorist, but broadened his brushwork somewhat in later years when impressionism waned. Back in America, he was immediately successful. He won a silver medal at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco and the Purchase Prize of the Chicago Municipal Art Commission in the following year. So famed was Buehr that had a one-man exhibition at the Century of Progress Fair in Chicago in 1934.
After a long and exceedingly productive career, Karl Buehr died in Chicago at the age of eighty-six.

Walter Buehr

His nephew Walter Buehr was the author and illustrator of many children's books. Walter Franklin Buehr May 14, 1897 - January 2, 1971
Walter Buehr was born in Chicago on May 14, 1897. After high school he attended several different art schools including the Art Students League of New York, the Detroit School of Design, the Philadelphia School of Industrial Arts, the Art Students League, and he also studied art in Europe.
He began a first sergeant in the first camouflage section of the U.S. Army Engineers during World War I and was awarded the active service medal.
He married Camilla Goodwyn, a portrait artist and fashion illustrator, in 1938. The two had three daughters, and at least five grandchildren. Two of his grandchildren lived in France & couldn't speak English, which made it very hard on a grandfather who spoke very little French!
Buehr had varied talents and interests. He designed furniture, was interested in ceramics, like to tinker with high fidelity systems, and loved sailing. He even lived on his boat during the summers and cruised both the Atlantic coast and the Mediterranean. This hobby led to the writing of his first book - Ships and Life Afloat. He wanted children in the Midwest to be able to understand the terms used in stories about the sea, how the ships were rigged, how they operated, what the life of a sailor was like, etc.
His over fifty-six books, including four for adults, reflect his wide variety of interests, including sailing and the sea, medieval history, exploration, transportation, electricity, and more. His history books dealt with romantic eras full of knights, castles, galleys, and galleons.
Notable Works include but are not limited to:
1812: The War and the World, 1967 - TruthQuest
Automobiles, Past and Present, 1968
Birth of a Liner, 1961
Bread, the Staff of Life, 1959
Cargoes in the Sky, 1958
Chivalry and the Mailed Knight, 1963 - TruthQuest
Cloth, from Fiber to Fabric, 1965
The Crusades, 1959 - TruthQuest
Famous Small Boat Voyages, 1967
Firearms, 1967
First Book of Machines, 1962
Food, From Farm to Home, 1970
Freight Trains of the Sky, 1969
French Explorers in America, 1961 - TruthQuest
Galleys and Galleons, 1964 - TruthQuest
Genie and the Word: Electricity and Communication, 1959
Harbors and Cargoes, 1955
Harvest of the Sea, 1955 - TruthQuest
Heraldry: The Story of Armorial Bearing, 1964 - TruthQuest
Home Sweet Home in the Nineteenth Century, 1965
Keeping Time, 1960
Knights and Castles and Feudal Life, 1957 - TruthQuest
Magic of Paper, 1966
Marvel of Glass, 1963
Meat, From Ranch to Table, 1956
Oil, Today’s Black Magic, 1957
Plastics, The Man-made Miracle, 1967
The Portuguese Explorers, 1966 - TruthQuest
Railroads, Today and Yesterday, 1958
Rubber, Natural and Synthetic, 1964
Salt, Sugar, and Spice, 1969
Sea Monsters, 1966
Sending the Word, The Story of Communication, 1959
Ships and Life Afloat: From Galley to Turbine, 1953
Ships of the Great Lakes, 1956
The Spanish Armada, 1962 - TruthQuest
The Spanish Conquistadores in North America, 1962 - TruthQuest
Storm Warning, 1972
The Story of Locks, 1953
Story of the Wheel, 1960
Strange Craft, 1963
Through the Locks: Canals Today and Yesterday, 1954
Timber! Farming Our Forests, 1960
Treasure: The Story of Money and Its Safeguarding, 1955
Trucks and Trucking, 1957
Underground Riches, The Story of Mining, 1958
The Viking Explorers, 1968 - TruthQuest
Volcano!, 1962
Warriors Weapons, 1963
Water, Our Vital Need, 1967
Westward with American Explorers, 1963 - TruthQuest
When Towns Had Walls, Life in a Medieval English Town, 1970
Wonder Worker, The Story of Electricity, 1961
World Beneath the Waves, 1964
The World of Marco Polo, 1961 - TruthQuest
Books Illustrated by Walter Buehr:
Adventures on the Cloud 9, by Adelaide Field
The First Book of the Ocean, by Sam & Beryl Epstein
Mary, Queen of Scots, by Emily Hahn - TruthQuest
Moon Base, by William Nephew