George Herbert Baker (Richmond, IN 1878-1943) "Richmond Bridge"; 9" x 9", watercolor on paper, signed lower right. Set up in acid-free materials and a recent frame.

George Herbert Baker Biography (from the FineEstateArt.com site)

George Herbert Baker was a key figure in the Richmond Group, working primarily in Richmond, but he is also known for painting among the Brown County artists.

Born in Muncie on ValentineÂ’s Day, 1878, George Baker lived in Richmond most of his life. As a young artist in Richmond, George painted farm machinery at the Gaar-Scott Company, alongside Charles Conner. In Richmond, he met friend and mentor, John Elwood Bundy, and subsequently studied at the Cincinnati Art Academy and the Boothbay Art School in Maine.

He was visiting instructor at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, in 1925. Among his many pupils in Richmond were Howard Leigh and Lawrence McConaha.

Baker and Bundy were close friends, sharing a studio at one time, and influencing each other greatly. Baker had a keen sense of color, expressed in landscapes of all seasons and moods, also in pastels and marines in his later years. His tendency towards bright color led his adversaries to label him an alcoholic—an… interesting correlation to make.

He exhibited throughout the U.S. and in Indiana. In Richmond he consistently won awards at the Palette Club and at the Annual Exhibits, despite his cohortÂ’s strained relationship with and criticism of Ella Bond Johnston, the director of the Richmond Art Association.

His work is held in collections at the Indianapolis Museum of Art, Richmond Art Museum, Earlham College, Miami University Art Museum, among other institutions.

9 x 9 in