(b Zurich, 19 July 1819; d Zurich, 15 July 1890). Swiss writer, painter and critic. In his youth in Zurich he considered the professions of writer and painter and initially chose the latter. His artistic interests were probably inherited from his father, an amateur artist, and he developed his talents through continuous sketching. In 1834-5 he was apprenticed to an engraver, Peter Steiger (1804-74), who encouraged his talent but gave little advice on painting or artistic theory. He began to paint landscapes in earnest after 1835, when he was inspired by an exhibition of the works of Fran?ois Diday. In 1837 he worked with the landscape painter Rudolf Meyer (1803-57), who trained Keller's eye and hand to observe and record nature. At this time Keller also began to paint watercolours en plein air (e.g. View on the Sihl, 1837; Zurich, Zentbib.). His meticulous studies have strong similarities to the topographical paintings of Johann Jakob Biedermann and Johann Ludwig Aberli, whose work Keller admired. His subject-matter became influenced by the prevailing Romanticism of the period, as in Medieval Town (c. 1839; Zurich, Zentbib.), which is a product of his imagination rather than observation. He painted his first oils in 1839 but continued to work mainly in watercolour, a medium that particularly suited his temperament. He also broadened his style considerably, working more deliberately to capture atmospheric effects (e.g. View near Zurich, 1839; Zurich, Zentbib.) and to employ a rich array of blue and green tones. In 1840 he went to Munich, where he lived in poverty. In 1841 he exhibited his works for the first time; they were favourably received by critics, who observed that he had been influenced by such German landscape painters as Carl Rottmann (e.g. Scene of the Limmat Valley from the Hottinberg, 1842; St Gall, Kstmus.). Keller's paintings are also similar to the classically inspired landscapes of Joseph Anton Koch, as seen in Heroic Landscape (1841; Zurich, Zentbib.). Critics noted that this work was a carefully contrived essay in landscape composition, giving evidence of a close study of the paintings of Poussin and Claude. He returned to Zurich in 1842 and by this time was beginning to develop a career in literature. He felt that his talents did not lie in the visual arts, although he continued to paint for his own pleasure, producing mainly watercolours of great imagination and vivid colour (e.g. Mondsee, 1873; Winterthur, Kstmus.) until his death.
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