Carl Eytel

Carl Eytel
Eytel sketching – during his trip with George Wharton James, c. 1900
Born
Karl Adolf Wilhelm Eytel

(1862-09-12)September 12, 1862
Maichingen, Kingdom of Württemberg, German Confederation
DiedSeptember 17, 1925(1925-09-17) (aged 63)
Banning, California, U.S.
Resting placeJane Augustine Patencio Cemetery, Palm Springs, California
33°49′21″N 116°32′02″W / 33.8224°N 116.5340°W / 33.8224; -116.5340
Nationality
  • German
  • American
Education
Known for
Notable workDesert near Palm Springs (1914) now in the California State Library California History Room[1]
Movement
Patron(s)Martha M. Newkirk

Carl Eytel (September 12, 1862 – September 17, 1925) was a German American artist who built his reputation for paintings and drawings of desert subjects in the American Southwest. Immigrating to the United States in 1885, he settled in Palm Springs, California in 1903. With an extensive knowledge of the Sonoran Desert, Eytel traveled with the author George Wharton James as he wrote the successful Wonders of the Colorado Desert, and contributed over 300 drawings to the 1908 work. While he enjoyed success as an artist, he lived as an ascetic and would die in poverty.[2] Eytel's most important work, Desert Near Palm Springs, hangs in the History Room of the California State Library.[3]

  1. ^ "Picture Catalog – Holdings". Sacramento, CA: California State Library. Archived from the original on July 19, 2021. Retrieved November 25, 2011.
  2. ^ Larson, Roger Keith (1996). "Part Five, Carl Eytel, 1862–1925". In Kurutz, Gary F. (ed.). California Book Illustrators: a Keepsake in Fourteen Parts for the Members of the Book Club of California (Keepsake Series ed.). San Francisco: The Book Club of California. LCCN 97157635. OCLC 36888109. No phrase epitomizes the life of Carl Eytel better than the cliche 'art for art's sake,' or for those who prefer the original language, L'art pour l'art.
  3. ^ Kurutz, Gary F. (2009). "Carl Eytel: Southern California Desert Artist" (PDF). Bulletin. 95. Sacramento, CA: California State Library Foundation: 17–20. Archived (PDF) from the original on September 23, 2015. Retrieved November 13, 2011. It was originally hung at the State Capitol in the Main Corridor. See Rider, Fremont; Cooper, Frederic Taber (1925). Rider's California: a guide-book for travelers. New York: Macmillan Company. p. 207. OCLC 2650242. Archived from the original on June 30, 2021. Retrieved June 10, 2013.