Joseph Kleitsch: 118 Masterpieces

Joseph Kleitsch (1882–1931) was a Hungarian-American portrait and plein air painter who holds a high place in the early California School of Impressionism. He has been characterized as a "master of gorgeous color". Arthur Millier, art critic for the "Los Angeles Times", in 1933, said of Kleitsch that he was "a born colorist; he seemed to play on canvas with the abandon of a gypsy violinist". Earlier Anthony Anderson, also an art critic for the "Los Angeles Times" in 1922, was quoted as saying: "Kleitsch has discovered more varieties of loveliness in Laguna Beach than any other artist...he explored little intimate places, he painted quaint old streets with towering eucalyptus, the gardens rioting with bloom, and he introduced feminine figures straying through these charming purlieus...". During his career, he held memberships at the Chicago Society of Artists, the Laguna Beach Art Association, the Painters' and Sculptors' Club and the Palette and Chisel Club of Chicago.