Oil on Canvas, 36 x 40 1/2 in.

Signed lower left: Carl Gaertner

Private Collection

In the 1920s, when steel production in Cleveland was still at full tilt Cleveland born painter Carl Gaertner went down to the flats along the Cuyahoga river where the mills were in operation. He was in his twenties himself, attending the Cleveland School of Art from 1920 to 1923, and beginning a 30 year tenure on the painting faculty of his alma mater in 1925. In the flats he painted on-site studies for a succession of pictures featuring scenes that quickly made his reputation in Cleveland and eventually led to recognition beyond: to acceptance in 20 national juried shows outside Cleveland, 32 top national prizes, and to seeing his paintings enter the permanent collection of 21 museums including New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. His was a vigorous and direct way of handling paint, with certain affinities with the work of Columbus native George Bellows. Year after year his industrial scenes of Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and the rolling hills of rural West Virginia towns won top prize at the May Show at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Sadly just as he was breaking into the big time nationally at age 54, he suddenly died from a massive brain hemorrhage.

Under the Bridge was shown in the 17th Annual Expedition of Cleveland Artists and Craftsman (the “May Show”) at the Cleveland Museum of Art May 5th through June 7th 1925