"Family at the Fairground" by Painter Edgar Kiechle

Description

The oil painting features a family at the fairground stopping by the ice cream stand. An elegant mother hands a … more The oil painting features a family at the fairground stopping by the ice cream stand. An elegant mother hands a treat to one of her three children, while another holds his ice cream, and the last one a red balloon. A couple with a child stands on the left part of the painting, while in the background, men sitting on stools face a cook at a counter. The latter looks down and focuses on preparing food for his clients. The overall impression is joyful and lively, though it looks more like the end of the day because of the dark warm colors used by the artist to depict the scene.

Edgar O. Kiechle was born in 1911. He was a movie illustrator and a painter.
Edgar studied landscape painting with Jean Mannheim, and architecture, and became an excellent watercolorist. After studying at the Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles, he interned with leading architects and designers in the area. He worked at most major studios but his career as an illustrator saw him primarily at the Universal Studio Art department.
In 1933, Edgar joined Lwerks as a background artist and worked on many films produced by Animated Picture Corporation through 1935.

In the summer of 1941, Edgar Kiechle joined the Universal Studio Art Department as an illustrator for motion pictures. His career as an illustrator saw him primarily at Universal.
He also produced hundreds of oil paintings. His first public showing was in an exhibition of motion picture artists in 1945, His work came to the attention of the motion picture colony and many purchases were made by such notables of his day as Ida Lupino, Hedy Lamar, Helmut Dantine, Harry Warren, Georgie Hale, Jerome Kern, Ira Gershwin, and others. at which time Herman Reuter wrote, "in the Kiechle canvasses, there is spirit, imagination, and dexterity of manipulation."
In addition, Kiechle’s oils appeared in various other motion pictures, some of which were lent from Universal’s collection of Kiechle’s art.
Critic Herman Reuter wrote in the Hollywood Citizen-News that Kiechle's "vigorous approach" was "especially notable in several oils," adding that his "bold layering on of paint seems to serve a definite expressive purpose, rather than being a mere mannerism as it so often is with those who mistake plastic tub-thumping for impressiveness."
In 1953 the distinguished art critic of the Los Angeles Times, Arthur Millier, called Kiechle "a born painter," saying that he had "a gift for suggesting atmosphere, and is one of the best painters of the night in the region."
In addition to one-man and invitational shows, Kiechle's work has been included in exhibitions at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and San Francisco Museum of Art, Oakland.
Edgar O. Kiechle died June 24, 1960, at the age of 49, but his vision of the world lives on in his work, exhibited in posthumous shows and hanging in numerous private collections. less