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Source Description
Henry Keller championed modern art in Cleveland through lectures, teaching, and the example of his own work. <em>Wisdom and Destiny</em>, 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 <em>Wisdom and Destiny</em>, 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.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
109973
label
Wisdom and Destiny
core
obj
dtoType
painting
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
109973
contentType
painting
title
Wisdom and Destiny
description
Henry Keller championed modern art in Cleveland through lectures, teaching, and the example of his own work. <em>Wisdom and Destiny</em>, 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 <em>Wisdom and Destiny</em>, 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.
date
1913
rights
CC0
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
wikidata
Q60513218
creators
4433
genreSpecific
Painting
imageCount
1
source
import
dimensionsRaw
Framed: 94.6 x 120 x 5.8 cm (37 1/4 x 47 1/4 x 2 5/16 in.); Unframed: 76.5 x 101.9 cm (30 1/8 x 40 1/8 in.)
cul
America, Ohio, Cleveland
accession
1928.58
Source extras
tec
oil on canvas
tombstone
Wisdom and Destiny, 1913. Henry Keller (American, born Germany, 1869–1949). Oil on canvas; framed: 94.6 x 120 x 5.8 cm (37 1/4 x 47 1/4 x 2 5/16 in.); unframed: 76.5 x 101.9 cm (30 1/8 x 40 1/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Mrs. Henry A. Everett for the Dorothy Burnham Everett Memorial Collection, 1928.580
collection
American - Cleveland School
inscriptions
inscription
signed lower left: H. G. Keller.
formerAccessionNumbers
1865.28
didYouKnow
Henry Keller's cousin once reminisced, "He is the only noted artist who doesn’t smoke, that I ever heard of."
citations
citation
Henry G. Keller family papers. 1891-1949. Cleveland Museum of Art Archives.
citation
"The Dorothy Burnham Everett Memorial Collection." <em>The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art </em>20, no. 1 (January 1933): 1-3
page_number
Mentioned: p. 3
citation
Francis, Henry. "The Dorothy Burnham Everett Memorial Collection." <em>The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art </em>25, no. 6, pt. 2 (June 1938): 124-131
page_number
Mentioned: p. 124
citation
Cleveland Institute of Art, Cleveland Museum of Art, Henry G Keller, and William Mathewson Milliken. The Henry G. Keller Memorial Exhibition: Catalogue of an Exhibition of Works by Henry G. Keller. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1950.
page_number
Mentioned: p. 22; Reproduced: Plate III
citation
Robinson, William H., et. al. <em>Transformations in Cleveland Art, 1796-1946: Community and Diversity in Early Modern America</em>. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1996.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 74; Mentioned: p. 74, 248
citation
Channing, Laurence, "Before Neo: The May Show", Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine</em>. Vol. 45 no. 07, September 2005
page_number
Mentioned & reproduced: p. 3-4
citation
Kraynak, Scott, Henry Adams, Douglas Max Utter, William G. Scheele, R. A. Washington, and Mike Hudson. <em>The Heart of Cleveland.</em> Shaker Hts, OH: Red Giant Books, 2018.
page_number
Reproduced: P. 19, fig. 8
creditline
Gift of Mrs. Henry A. Everett for the Dorothy Burnham Everett Memorial Collection
updatedAt
2026-06-11 20:33:13.997000
sourceId
109973
dept
American Painting and Sculpture
coll
American - Cleveland School
med
oil on canvas
creatorTags
Cleveland Institute of Art (faculty)
male
May Show
thumbnail_url
image_url
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
photo
mediaId
5871afd0eb4a0ba2