Homage to Leger, 1941, oil on canvas, signed and dated lower right, 14 x 17 inches; inscribed verso “Executed while studying with Fernand Leger, who worked directly on this Canvas. J.K.”; provenance includes George Stern Fine Arts (West Hollywood, CA) and Spener Jon Helfen Fine Arts (Beverly Hills, CA); presented in a high quality Vanderen frame
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Jean Kellogg was a California, painter, etcher, photographer, and illustrator. Born in Berkley to prominent parents, Vernon and Charlotte Kellogg, the young artist was educated in Switzerland, Washington DC at the Phillips Memorial Gallery and the Corcoran Gallery of Art, and Yale University’s School of Fine Arts, where she studied painting under Weeks, Taylor and Keller. She also studied at the Art Student’s League with Kuniyoshi and with Henry Varnum Poor, Donald Prendergast, Martin Bear, and Paul Dougherty. Kellogg lived in Carmel most of her life where she was an integral part of the art community during the 1930s onward. She was a neighbor and close friend of Edward Weston, who photographed her on several occasions, including an image which is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art. Kellogg counted Weston as a major influence together with art as diverse as Persian miniatures, ancient Chinese masters, the French romantic painters and the American artist, Albert P. Ryder. Kellogg had her first solo exhibition in New York at Ferargil Gallery in 1938. She hosted Fernand Leger when he visited Carmel in 1941 for a two-week painting symposium at the Carmel Art Institute organized by fellow artist John Cunningham. Kellogg probably painted Homage to Leger, to which Leger contributed, around the time of the symposium. She also exhibited at the Lucian Labaudt Art Gallery and the Alexandre Rabow Galleries. In 1951, one of her etchings won first prize in the James D. Phelan Awards in Graphic Arts. In 1960, she married writer and illustrator James Dickie. Kellogg devoted much of her later practice to graphic arts and together with Dickie collaborated on Design the Natural Way. She ran an art gallery in Monterey where she died in 1995. Her work is in The Phillips Collection. Kellogg is listed in Who Was Who in American Art and other standard references.