Artist's Studio Easel, Property of Henry Koehler, 20th Century
The working easel of Henry Koehler, one of America's foremost sporting painters, bearing the honest evidence of a long career at the canvas.
ARTIST: Provenance: Henry Koehler (American, 1927–2018)
PERIOD: 20th Century
TITLE: Artist's Easel
CATEGORY: Works on Paper / Artist's Studio
MATERIALS: Wood, metal hardware, on casters
DIMENSIONS: 6 ft. 8 in. x 25½ in. x 34¼ in.
CONTEXT: Henry Koehler was born in Louisville, Kentucky in 1927 and lived and worked in Southampton, New York. After graduating from Yale, he began his career as an illustrator working for publications including Sports Illustrated, The New Yorker, Town & Country, and Vogue, before taking up painting full-time in 1961. His loyal following of collectors included Ralph Lauren, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Paul Mellon, John Hay Whitney, the Duchess of Windsor, and HRH The Prince of Wales. This studio easel — well-used, paint-splattered, and structurally sound — stood in Koehler's Southampton studio across decades of that distinguished output. It is, in the most literal sense, where the paintings happened.