Coal Boat, Milwaukee

(1866, Sheboygan, WI – 1943, Milwaukee, WI) George Raab was born in 1866 in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. In 1889, Raab and Herman Keiker opened a photographic studio called Feiker and Raab. Less than a year later, Raab would start up another business, Raab and Bressler, Crayon Artists. Then, around 1890, Raab began studying under Richard Lorenz and Robert Schade at the Wisconsin Art Institute in Milwaukee. From 1891 to 1896, he traveled to Europe, presumably under the advice of Lorenz, to study at the Weimar Art Academy in Germany and the Colarossi Art School of Paris under Gustave Courtois. In 1899, Raab retuned to Milwaukee. A year later, he exhibited at Bressler Co. with two other artists, Alexander Mueller and Louis Mayer. The three helped found the Society of Milwaukee Artists (later known as the Wisconsin Painter and Sculptors organization), where Raab would act as President in 1917. From 1901 to 1909/10, Raab taught at the Milwaukee Art Students League and from 1902 to 1922, worked as a curator at the Layton Art Gallery. Raab also became a member of the Milwaukee Art Commission from 1915 to 1922, approving building and art acquisitions for the Milwaukee Public schools. He was also a member of the Milwaukee Art Association (now known as the Milwaukee Art Museum). In 1917, Raab won Milwaukee Art Institute’s Painter’s Award Medal for a portrait he made of his mother in the manner of “Whistler’s Mother”. In 1922, he taught at the State Normal School in Milwaukee and then moved to Illinois a year later to obtain the position of Educational Director of the Springfield Art Institute. Raab was later made Director of Decatur Art Institute and then Director and Lecturer in fine arts at Milliken University. In 1937, Raab moved back to Milwaukee to open a studio on Holton Street. Raab is known for his painting and printmaking executed in a variety of styles including Impressionism, Pointillism, Art Nouveau, and Academic realism.