Born in New York City of Prussian parents, Augustus Buhler (1853-1920) started art lessons in Worcester after his family moved there in 1865. He later studied in Boston and Paris. In 1885, he began spending summers in Gloucester, and historian William Gerdts describes Buhler as an artist who “best represents the resident Gloucester painter.”
From 1888 to 1890, he was in France, studying at the Ecole des Beaux Arts and the Julian Academy, and returning to the United States, he established studios in Boston and Annisquam and then at the turn of the century, moved to Gloucester. He also was a magazine illustrator, contributing to “Youth’s Companion”, “Leslie’s”, “Harper’s”, and Brown and Bigelow.
His fine art specialty was painting lives of the fishermen, although he was not prolific as he spent so much time teaching in an art school in his studio. He adapted his boat to become a floating studio so he could observe the sea and Gloucester fishermen, and it is said that he excelled at capturing atmosphere. The men in his paintings were all fishermen whom he had known personally, “the last group of heroic figures representing the Gloucester fishing industry in the late 19th century.” (Childs Gallery).
Source:
Childs Gallery, Boston, 1968 Exhibition publicity. Courtesy John Hutchinson of Salem, Massachusetts.
