Arthur Keller\nBorn 1867 New York City – passed 1924\nEducation National Academy, New York, and in Munich\n\nHis father was an engraver and encouraged Keller to be an artist. He was born in New York City and studied art at the National Academy of Design there when he was 17. At the age of 20, he appeared in a few issues of St. Nicholas magazine - a monthly magazine for children published by The Century Co. It seems that illustration was not his first love and those few drawings marked the beginning and the end of an early career. He wanted to paint.\n\nAfter his studies concluded in Germany, he returned to New York in 1891, he was prepared for a career as a painter, but it didn\'t last. His work appears in the original Life in 1894 and 1895, and in February of 1897, the image at right appeared in Harpers Monthly, signaling a complete conversion to illustration. \nAppearing in the same issue of Harpers were Howard Pyle, A.B. Frost, Frederic Remington, George du Maurier, Peter Newell and others. The year before, Pyle had started teaching illustration classes at the Drexel Institute. Within five years the illustration field would be crowded with his students. During these five years, Keller made his own mark. He appeared regularly in every major magazine of the day: The Century, Harpers, Scribners, Colliers, McClures and sporadically in many others. And by the end of those five years, in 1903, he was president of the Society of Illustrators, which had just been formed in 1901.

Memberships

Society of Illustrators President 1903

Arthur Keller History of American Illustration