The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 19, 2025

The Furnace

1924

Carl Gaertner

(American, 1898–1952)
America
oil on canvas
Framed: 110.5 x 110.8 cm (43 1/2 x 43 5/8 in.); Unframed: 88.9 x 104.8 cm (35 x 41 1/4 in.)
Gift of The Huntington National Bank 2013.66
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

Blast furnaces convert iron ores to molten metallic iron, an essential step in the making of steel.

Description

One of the most widely exhibited artists working in Cleveland during the second quarter of the 1900s, Gaertner specialized in painting the city and its environs. Among his favored subjects were scenes of Cleveland’s manufacturing heyday, including The Furnace, a composition praised at the time by a curator at the Cleveland Museum of Art for capturing "admirably the sense of drama and power of industrial achievement."
  • The collection of the artist
    Union Lennox Company, Cleveland, Ohio
    Union Commerce Bank Corporation, Cleveland, Ohio
    The Huntington National Bank Collection, Columbus, Ohio
  • Adams, Henry. The Golden Age of Cleveland Art: 1900 to 1945, exh. cat. (Cleveland, OH: Western Reserve Historical Society, 2022), p. 72.
    Hoffman, Jay, Dee Driscole, and Mary Clare Zahler. A Study in Regional Taste: The May Show, 1919-1975. (Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1977) Reproduced p. 48
    Carl Gaertner Entry Card to 1924 May Show. Cleveland Museum of Art May Show Records, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives, exhibited as The Shops. 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. 106, 110; Mentioned: p.110, fig. 110
    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. 24, fig. 16
    Johnston, April Nehring. The Making of Cleveland's Artist: The Aesthetic and Cultural Politics of Boundary Crossing in the Industrial Landscape Paintings of Carl Gaertner, 1923-1952. Thesis, Washington University, 2019. Mentioned: P. xvi, 24, 25, 39, 56, 67; Reproduced: P. xvi, 25, fig. 1.7
  • Transformations in Cleveland Art, 1796-1946. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 19-July 21, 1996).
    A Study in Regional Taste: May Show 1919 - 1975. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (July 13-August 21, 1977).
    The May Show: 6th Annual Exhibition of Works by Cleveland Artists and Craftsmen. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 6-June 8, 1924).
  • {{cite web|title=The Furnace|url=false|author=Carl Gaertner|year=1924|access-date=19 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2013.66