The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 18, 2025

Wisdom and Destiny

1913

Henry Keller

(American, born Germany, 1869–1949)
America, Ohio, Cleveland
oil on canvas
Framed: 94.6 x 120 x 5.8 cm (37 1/4 x 47 1/4 x 2 5/16 in.); Unframed: 76.5 x 101.9 cm (30 1/8 x 40 1/8 in.)
Gift of Mrs. Henry A. Everett for the Dorothy Burnham Everett Memorial Collection 1928.580
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

Henry Keller's cousin once reminisced, "He is the only noted artist who doesn’t smoke, that I ever heard of."

Description

Henry Keller championed modern art in Cleveland through lectures, teaching, and the example of his own work. Wisdom and Destiny, based on an essay by the Belgian writer Maurice Maeterlinck, features the two allegorical figures at the right, while a carefree shepherd at the left seems oblivious to their existence. The painting was featured in the famed Armory Show of 1913, a large-scale traveling exhibition often credited with introducing the American public to avant-garde art. Because of the critical success surrounding Wisdom and Destiny, Keller was commissioned to create a 70-foot mural of the composition for Cleveland City Hall. However, he resentfully withdrew from the project when asked to paint clothing on the nude figure.
  • Henry G. Keller family papers. 1891-1949. Cleveland Museum of Art Archives. library.clevelandart.org
    "The Dorothy Burnham Everett Memorial Collection." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 20, no. 1 (January 1933): 1-3 Mentioned: p. 3 www.jstor.org
    Francis, Henry. "The Dorothy Burnham Everett Memorial Collection." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 25, no. 6, pt. 2 (June 1938): 124-131 Mentioned: p. 124 www.jstor.org
    Cleveland Institute of Art, Cleveland Museum of Art, Henry G Keller, and William Mathewson Milliken. The Henry G. Keller Memorial Exhibition: Catalogue of an Exhibition of Works by Henry G. Keller. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1950. Mentioned: p. 22; Reproduced: Plate III archive.org
    Robinson, William H., et. al. Transformations in Cleveland Art, 1796-1946: Community and Diversity in Early Modern America. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1996. Reproduced: p. 74; Mentioned: p. 74, 248
    Channing, Laurence, "Before Neo: The May Show", Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine. Vol. 45 no. 07, September 2005 Mentioned & reproduced: p. 3-4 archive.org
    Kraynak, Scott, Henry Adams, Douglas Max Utter, William G. Scheele, R. A. Washington, and Mike Hudson. The Heart of Cleveland. Shaker Hts, OH: Red Giant Books, 2018. Reproduced: P. 19, fig. 8
  • To Be or Not To Be: 400 Years of Vanitas Painting. Flint Institute of Arts, Flint, MI (organizer) (February 4-April 2, 2006).
    Transformations in Cleveland Art, 1796-1946. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 19-July 21, 1996).
    Cleveland Art Comes of Age: 1919-1940. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 28-September 10, 1989).
    Burchfield / Keller. Burchfield Penney Art Center, Buffalo, NY (organizer) (June 24-August 13, 1973).
    May Show Retrospective - 50 Years. The Cleveland Museum of Art (April 23-June 16, 1968).
    The Armory Show, 50th Anniversary Exhibition. Munson Museum of Art, Utica, NY (organizer) (February 17-April 28, 1963); Henry Street Settlement, New York, NY (April 6-28, 1963).
    Men of the Armory Show. Miami University, Oxford , OH (organizer) (January 1-February 1, 1956).
    Work of Cleveland Artists for the 41st Annual Meeting of the College Art Association. The Cleveland Institute of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 29-31, 1953).
    Henry G. Keller Memorial Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (February 1-March 19, 1950).
    Retrospective Twenty-fifth Anniversary May Show. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 13-February 14, 1943).
    The Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition: The Official Art Exhibit of the Great Lakes Exposition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 26-October 4, 1936).
    Second Exhibition of Contemporary American Painting. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 8-July 10, 1922).
  • {{cite web|title=Wisdom and Destiny|url=false|author=Henry Keller|year=1913|access-date=18 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1928.580