The Lifting Veil

Born in Vienna to Moravian-descent parents, Ingerle came to the United States with his family at age twelve. Art study began first at the John Francis Smith Art Academy followed by the Art Institute of Chicago. From 1907 to 1912, he often visited Brown County, Indiana, and joined an active art colony there painting plein air. Next, he found inspiration in the Ozark Mountains, drawn to the landscape in part from his childhood days in the Moravian foothills.

Not surprisingly, this stunningly atmospheric painting won a silver medal at the Art Institute’s Chicago and Vicinity exhibition of 1923. Though Ingerle offers minimal geographic specificity in his work, The Lifting Veil likely features the region of the Missouri Ozark Mountains. Ingerle joined the "Society of Ozark Painters," a group of artists who primarily lived in the big cities such as Chicago and St. Louis but were drawn to the Missouri Ozark mountain region during the summer and fall. The founder of the Society of Ozark Painters was fellow Union League Club artist Carl R. Krafft. Ingerle’s skill is evident in his adept depiction of fog and mist, and the overall translucence permeating the canvas.

He painted not only landscapes, but also fair-scapes. In 1933, like so many other artists, he visited the Century of Progress World’s Fair in Chicago and documented his stay by painting equally evocative works such as The Electrical Building at Twilight, and his dramatic Fountain and Search Lights. These important paintings were commissioned by the Westinghouse Corporation, an electric company of the time.

In the later part of his life he focused on the Smoky Mountain region in North Carolina and Tennessee. He became so devoted to the area that he in part persuaded the United States Government to grant the area protected status as a State Park. His permanent home was in Chicago, where he maintained a studio on the top floor of the Fine Arts building on Michigan Avenue and resided with his wife and son in Highland Park.