A painter, muralist, and teacher, Albert Krehbiel was highly regarded during his lifetime but after his death until recently, his reputation lapsed into near obscurity because he never sold his paintings and stored most of them in his barn/studio in Park Ridge, Illinois. However, family members have resurrected the distinction and admiration held for him during his lifetime. He was an instructor for thirty-nine years at the Art Institute of Chicago, a Professor at the Armour Institute beginning 1913 until shortly before his death, and a teacher in the architectural department of the Illinois Institute of Technology. He was also one of the early eastern artists into New Mexico.
Noted for his inspired use of color, Krehbiel painted many plein-air landscapes near his home, in Saugatuck, Michigan, and beginning in the 1920s in New Mexico. His style began as traditional academic and moved from impressionism to abstraction.
He was a quiet, unassuming man, who avoided self promotion. He refused to sell his paintings but did give them away to family members for special occasions. His daughter-in-law, Rebecca F Krehbiel, married to his son, Evans, and her daughter, Rebecca, have been key persons in the public's rediscovery of this artist's work. Krehbiel was born in Denmark, Iowa, and reared in Newton, Kansas where his father was a buggy maker. In 1895, he graduated from Bethel College, which his father, John J. Krehbiel, had co-founded and where the young man studied black-smithing. But Albert only wanted to paint and draw cartoons, much to the disapproval of his father.
At the urging of a representative (family legend is that it was William French, Director) of the Chicago Art Institute who had seen Krehbiel's work in Newton, the young man enrolled at the Art Institute of Chicago on money his less-than-enthusiastic father loaned him. In 1903, Krehbiel went to Paris on a traveling scholarship and was a student of history painter and muralist John Paul Laurens at the Academy Julian. Laurens espoused strong colors and sharp perspective in his mural painting, and this approach had a special influence on Krehbiel who, early in his career, had been influenced by the somber tones and realism of the French, Spanish, and Dutch Old      Masters. At the Academy, Krehbiel won four gold medals, the largest number ever awarded an American. He also did a walking/sketching tour of Spain and was especially taken with the works of Velasquez.
In 1906, he returned from Paris and married Dulah Marie Evans, a student at the Institute and an established commercial artist in Chicago.
For the Illinois state Supreme Court Building in Springfield, he, having been chosen by a unanimous decision of the selection committee, executed thirteen murals, "Allegories of Justice." The work was a blending of Midwestern themes with the European tradition of mural painting. In 1983, Lizabeth Wilson wrote a paper titled "Allegories of Justice: The Krehbiel Murals in the Supreme Court." Presented at the Tenth Meeting of the Midwest Art Historical Society in Iowa City in 1983, it is a source of excellent information about Krehbiel and the creation of the murals.
Krehbiel and his wife built a home in Park Ridge and bought the lot next door to build a studio to accommodate the mural painting process. Dulah served as his research assistant and model, often posing in Grecian gowns and robes that she designed herself. To get large enough canvases, they imported them from Paris, and he rigged up a system of pulleys and scaffolds for hanging and rolling the canvasses. He spent much time on research and planning his allegorical depictions, and the project took him four years, 1907 to 1911.
Of the final result, Lizabeth Wilson wrote: "Albert Krehbiel was not only triumphant in incorporating the wishes of the State, more importantly, he gave the People of Illinois noble and dignified paintings, 'allegories of justice,' which were reflective of the great European tradition of mural decoration, affectionate of the Midwestern spirit and character and respectful of the American classical tradition."
His success with public art led to his commission for the murals in the Juvenile Court chambers of Chicago.
In the summers of 1922 and 1923, Krehbiel painted in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and it is likely that his wife, who had earlier visited New Mexico pueblos, suggested these visits to her husband. However, he traveled there alone and was given a studio as a visiting artist by the New Mexico Museum in the historic Palace of the Governors. His studio was next to that of Robert Henri, but Krehbiel was not a social being and reportedly kept to himself and worked long hours. He painted Southwestern subjects including horses and riders, native residents, wagons, and mules as well as landscapes. In 1923, he entered four paintings in the "Fiesta Exhibition" at the Museum of New Mexico in Santa Fe. The first public exhibition of his Santa Fe works was held at the Gerald Peters Gallery in Santa Fe, August and September 1996.
In 1926, he moved briefly to Saugatuck, Michigan where for six succeeding years, he took over instruction of the landscape classes at the art colony there. Saugatuck was a summer extension of the Art Institute of Chicago School.
He died in Evanston, Illinois, on June 29, 1945, the day of his retirement from the Art Institute.
Special exhibition venues include the Salon des Artists in France, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Union League Club. From the Art Institute of Chicago, he received the Municipal Art League Prize for Landscape and the Carr Prize. His private papers are microfilmed in the Archives of American Art at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC., and original papers are in the Ryerson and Burnham Libraries of The Art Institute of Chicago.