Impromptu

1938

Impromptu, 1938. Henry Keller (American, 1869–1949). Color lithograph; The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of The Print Club of Cleveland 1943.175 Cleveland-born artist Henry Keller frequently worked in lithography throughout his long career. Many artists collaborated with a master printer, but Keller could print his work himself; he was extremely knowledgeable about the technique after having apprenticed with a commercial lithographer for almost a decade as a young man. In prints such as this one, he combined his professional knowledge with an interest in the human figure and expressive mark making: two female nudes are reduced to simple forms and surrounded with repetitive, gestural lines that suggest Keller’s continuing interest in abstraction. Henry Keller's first work as a commercial lithographer involved printing circus posters.