If I were Queen

Buehr was born on Valentine’s Day, one of seven sons, in the small town of Feuerbach, Germany outside the city of Stuttgart. When he was a young child, the family left Germany for the United States and made Chicago their home. Immigrant life was difficult for them, and all the boys had to contribute; young Karl first worked in Kirk’s soap factory and later at Kranz Candy. Around age fourteen, he gained employment in a lithography studio near the Art Institute of Chicago. Enraptured by the paintings, he asked for a job there and began work as an errand boy in the shipping department. Resolved to become an artist, he attended night school and worked as a night watchman at the Institute to pay his way. He graduated in 1894 with honors. In 1898 he enlisted in the Spanish American War and served as Postmaster for the Illinois Calvary.

The largesse of a patron afforded Buehr and his young family the opportunity to visit Europe (1906-1913), and most importantly to reside in Giverny at the time when Claude Monet was living nearby. Further art training ensued at the Académie Julian in Paris, the London School of Art, and the Academy in Rome. When he returned to Chicago, he established himself as a leading American Impressionist and teacher, mentoring many famous artists such as Archibald Motley Jr. at the School of the Art Institute.

This painting, though undated, would have been completed by January 1924 because it appeared in the Chicago and Vicinity Exhibition at the Art Institute in early February. Additional clues are a newspaper photograph published in January 1924 showing Buehr working on the painting in his studio at 19 East Pearson street in Chicago. The painting won the Municipal Arts League prize that same year.

The composition likely derives from the previous summer, as Buehr often vacationed at the country estate of a patron in upstate New York, and produced plein air scenes such as this one featuring women relaxing outdoors. In the painting, warm sunlight bathes the porch and distant landscape. The sitter is his daughter Kathleen, who also became an artist. (Mary) Kathleen was born in 1907, so she is around seventeen years of age in the painting. A brunette, she appears here as a redhead simply because her father felt it better suited the aesthetic affect.

She wears ballet slippers and what might be a dance costume, the blue bodice casually falling to reveal her creamy, youthful shoulders. But she is not engaged presently as a dancer, rather has paused from sewing, looking not at the viewer but past, dreaming as the title suggests if she "Were Queen."

Kathleen Buehr holds the distinction of playmate with Claude Monet’s granddaughter Lili when the Buehr family lived in Giverny.