Carl Christopher Graf (September 27, 1892 – 1947) was an American

impressionist Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passag ...

painter from Indiana. Graf was known for having been an artist in the

Hoosier Group The Hoosier Group was a group of Indiana Impressionist painters working in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Artists considered members of the Group include T. C. Steele, Richard Gruelle, William Forsyth, J. Ottis Adams, and Otto Stark. ...

and a participant in the City Hospital mural project.

Biography

Carl Christopher Graf grew up in

Bedford, Indiana Bedford is a city in Shawswick Township and the county seat of Lawrence County, Indiana, United States. In the 2020 census, the population was 13,792. That is up from 13,413 in 2010. Bedford is the principal city of the Bedford, IN Micropoli ...

. Shortly after he graduated from Bedford High School, he began working for the ''Bedford Daily Democrat'', sketching cartoons for the paper. After working with the ''Bedford Daily Democrat'', Graf enrolled at the

John Herron Art Institute Herron School of Art and Design, officially IU Herron School of Art and Design, is a public art school at Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) in Indianapolis, Indiana. It is a professional art school and has been accred ...

Career

Graf began his career as an artist after graduating high school with the ''Bedford Daily Democrat''. He sketched drawings for the ''Bedford Daily Democrat'' as a cartoonist. Shortly after, Graf left to enroll at the John Herron Art Institute for classes in sculpture and portrait painting. Graf became heavily involved with the City Hospital Project in 1914, and was one of the artists that lived in the hospital through the duration of the project. Unlike many of the artist involved in the project, Graf was an experienced mural artist and helped supervise the installation of many of the murals. Graf produced landscape, fairy tale and classical figure art that was displayed in the African-American women's surgical, medical, and obstetrical ward, and in the pediatric ward of the City Hospital. In the Children's Ward, Graf painted a seven-panel series of six-feet tall paintings illustrating the story of Cinderella. In the hallway leading to the pediatric ward, Graf painted Elfin Grove, The Grimm Brother's story of how the four seasons were created from perpetual sunshine and flames. After completion of the City Hospital project, Graf began studying at the

Academy of Fine Arts The following is a list of notable art schools. Accredited non-profit art and design colleges * Adelaide Central School of Art * Alberta College of Art and Design * Art Academy of Cincinnati * Art Center College of Design * The Art Institute ...

in Philadelphia and at the Art Students League of New York. Graf also studied at the Cincinnati Academy of Art before returning to Indianapolis to open a studio. Graf, along with several members of the Hoosier Group, made frequent trips to Brown County to paint the Brown County landscape. Graf eventually settled in Brown County, marrying Genevieve Goth, the sister of another Brown County artist,

Marie Goth Jessie Marie Goth (August 15, 1887, Indianapolis - January 9, 1975) was an American painter from Indianapolis, Indiana. Best known for her portraiture, Goth was the first woman to paint an official portrait of an Indiana governor (Henry F. Schr ...

. Carl Graf died in 1947 at the age of 54.

Awards

* Halcomb Prize, 1918

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Graf, Carl American Impressionist painters American landscape painters 19th-century American painters American male painters Artists from Indianapolis Hoosier Group landscape painters Painters from Indiana 20th-century American painters 1892 births 1947 deaths 19th-century American male artists American cartoonists American muralists Art Students League of New York alumni 20th-century American male artists Herron School of Art and Design alumni