Carl C. Graf

male	1892-1947
Era: 20th Century
Life city: Nashville, IN
Work city: Nashville, IN, IN
Teachers: William Forsyth
Styles: Flowers Landscapes Paintings Sculpture

Brown County

We're very interested in buying artwork by Carl C. Graf. Please contact us for more information.

Carl Christopher Graf was born Sept. 24, 1892, in Bedford, Indiana.

Earning money by painting murals at Bedford High School and as a cartoonist for the Bedford Daily Democrat newspaper, Graf saved enough to enroll at the John Herron Art Institute in Indianapolis. He spent seven years there, studying portraiture and sculpture. He took a great deal of instruction from William Forsyth. With his teacher’s approval, he was able to assist in painting a mural in the children’s wing at the City Hospital.

After Herron, Graf headed east to continue his art studies, first to the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts In Philadelphia, and then on New York City at the Art Students League. On his way back to Indianapolis, he attended yet another fine school, the Cincinnati Academy of Art.

Upon his return, he reopened his studio in the Banker’s Trust Bldg. in Indianapolis, where he had worked at his art while a student at Herron.

A painter of brightly colored still lifes and landscapes, he won several major awards. He was also a teacher and accomplished sculptor.

After many trips to Brown County to paint landscapes of the rolling hills and flowers, Graf built a home, studio and frame shop in Nashville in 1925. Befriending other artists was easy for the amiable and lanky, 6’6" Carl. Making it easier, his friend V. J. Cariani, his classmate in New York, now lived there. He married Genevieve Goth, sister of portrait painter Marie Goth, and taught her painting, at which she soon excelled in her own right. One year later, in 1926, Graf helped form and was the first president of the Brown County Art Gallery Association.

Carl Graf died Jan. 28, 1947 in Indianapolis, due to complications from influenza. He was just 54. His wife Genevieve passed away on Dec. 21, 1961, in Franklin, Indiana.

We’re very interested in purchasing artwork by Carl Graf. Please contact us if you have pieces you are considering selling.