The Evolution of an Artist: John Lewis Krimmel’s Sketchbooks

The treasures of the Winterthur Library are no secret, yet with each new discovery, it never ceases to impress. A few weeks ago, curator Stephanie Delamaire led the first year WPAMC fellows to the Downs Collection during our Prints and Paintings block. There we examined the sketchbooks of artist John Lewis Krimmel.

Examining Krimmel’s sketchbooks in the Joseph Downs Collection at the Winterthur Library

Despite being best known as an artist of American genre scenes, Krimmel was born in 1786 in the south of Germany. Arriving to Philadelphia in 1809, his initial intention was to join his brother working for a Swiss merchant. This was short lived, as he soon changed course and pursued a career in art, despite having no formal training.

The sketchbooks in the Winterthur Library were executed by Krimmel between the years 1809 and 1821. Seven sketchbooks in all, they exhibit how Krimmel, an untrained and amateur artist, taught himself to draw and paint from life. His marked change in technical ability over these short years is clear, as is his possession of an innate artistic ability. For example, we know from his later sketches and paintings how proficient Krimmel became at rendering figures. In his earliest sketchbook, we can observe Krimmel’s rendering of a young woman in a blue dress. Despite not being as technically advanced as his later work, we can still see how he paints her with remarkable sensitivity and vitality.

Here, a later watercolor of a cave, likely executed on a trip to Germany, displays Krimmel’s deft sense of color, light and composition.

The sketches also exemplify why we material culturists are so fascinated by his work: he includes wonderfully detailed objects, using each as a visual tool to contribute to the scene’s narrative. The fellows inspected several renderings in which he recorded objects and interior spaces, likely for use in larger works.

By examining his sketches, the class could see Krimmel’s progression as he gained confidence in the figural renderings and complicated compositions he is so well known for in his genre painting. As a next step, we went into the collection, to examine an example of Krimmel’s finished work entitled Quilting Frolic, which was exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy in 1813. It exemplifies how Krimmel composed his scenes with a vast amount of detail, that, while imbued with multiple narratives, still form a cohesive whole.

Stephanie uses a magnifier connected to her iPad while discussing Krimmel’s brushwork technique.

John Lewis Krimmel’s sketches provide us a wonderful insight into an artist’s thought process, exhibiting his artistic interests, ideas, and evolution. In many ways, having his sketchbooks in the Winterthur library is as valuable as having his finished works in the museum.

By Lan Morgan, WPAMC Class of 2017