Old Grumpy

Old Grumpy is Keller's affectionate portrait of a character — likely a local fisherman, farmer, or neighbor — whose weathered face and grumpy expression provide the perfect subject for a demonstration of watercolor portrait technique. Keller's approach to portraiture in watercolor was the same as his approach to landscape: direct, confident, and economical. The washes of color that define the face are laid down with the decisiveness that distinguishes the Cleveland School, and the result is a portrait that feels observed rather than constructed.

Keller's portraits demonstrate that the Cleveland School watercolor method was not limited to landscape. The same principles — direct observation, decisive execution, and respect for the medium — that produced his harbor scenes and fog paintings could be applied to the human face with equally compelling results. Old Grumpy has the immediacy and freshness of a sketch combined with the psychological depth of a finished portrait.

Old Grumpy is watercolor portraiture at its best: a face captured with speed and sympathy, every brushstroke contributing to the characterization, and the white of the paper doing as much work as the pigment.