Carl Christian Brenner was born in Lauterecken, Bavaria, Germany in 1838. He went to public school in Bavaria and studied with Philip Frolig in Germany before emigrating to the United States at age 15. He first settled in New Orleans where he worked with his father as a glazer. By 1854 he was in Louisville, Kentucky where he worked as a sign and ornamental painter as well as a house painter.

Brenner became a full time landscape painter around 1878, his favorite subjects were beech trees and scenes of Cherokee park in Louisville and the Cumberland Mountains. If the scene pictured is indeed of Cherokee Park it would depict Beargrass Creek that runs through the Park. Combining a range of styles including Tonalism, Realism and Romanticism his paintings were highly prized and collected during his lifetime.

Today his works can be found in both private and public collections including Cheekwood Botanical Gardens and Museum, Speed Art Museum, Morris Museum of Art, The Corcoran Gallery of Art and The Johnson Collection, Spartanburg, S.C.

Exhibited: Philadephia Exposition; National Academy of Desig, 1877-1886; Louisville Industrial Exposition, 1879; Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art, 1878, 1881-85.

Provenance: Alexander Galt Robinson and Mariah Lewis (Booker) Robinson. It hung in their estate in Louisville, Kentucky Located at 5040 Nitta Yuma Drive. Alexander Robinson was the Great-grandson fo Richard Henry Lee, Member of the Virginia of Correspondence and of the Continental Congress, signer of the Declaration of Independence.

Source: Who Was Who in American Art, Peter Falk.

Oil on Canvas 14” x 26”. Kentucky Landscape, likely a scene showing Beargrass Creek that runs through Cherokee Park, Louisville, Kentucky. Magnificent original gilded frame: 24” x 35 3/4”.