I’m an idiot, but you already knew that.
After writing about discovering Frederick Gaertner in this post, I belatedly realized I had seen–on numerous occasions, no less–one of his paintings at the Cleveland Museum of Art. For some reason, I never connected that Gaertner with my Gaertner discovered at the Bonfoey Gallery.
The Museum’s “The Furnace” is a large oil from Gaertner’s earlier period when his subject was Cleveland in its heyday; a Cleveland rocking 🙂 with industrial brawn. Unfortunately, that Cleveland has faded into the The Burning River lore. But my guess is that most NE Ohioans would gratefully welcome back that old Cleveland with its plentiful jobs.
Gaertner, who died in 1952, painted these industrial subjects without any of the political cant that became ubiquitous later. As a result, these subjects seem fresh and honest.
BONUS RANT: Like the Dayton Art Institute’s site, the Cleveland Museum of Art’s site is slow and difficult to use, and fails on the basics. A search for “Gaertner” produces several works, but “The Furnace” isn’t among them.
[The photo is mine (proof that the museum has the painting) but the work is owned by the Cleveland Museum of Art.]