Gerald Geerlings

An architect by training, Gerald K. Geerlings was noted by art critics of the 1930s for the precision of his prints of the American cityscape. Although an accomplished etcher who won numerous awards, his art career was limited by his work as an architect and Geerlings only produced art prior to World War II and after his retirement in the 1970s. After serving in World War I, Geerlings earned both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in architecture from Penn and traveled to Europe to study architecture on a fellowship. While in Europe, Geerlings began to sketch extensively, resulting in two books on architectural decoration. Although mostly self-taught, he attended drawing classes at the Royal College of Art in London periodically from 1929-1932 and became an accomplished etcher, specializing in scenes of New York City and Chicago.

Geerlings output recalls the optimism in American progress that was prominent in the artworks of peers such as Charles Sheeler, whose celebrations of unlimited potential of American cities and factories became synonymous with the Precisionist style in which he painted. Geerlings also shared an interest in capturing everyday life in the city, aligning with the Ashcan School. An earlier generation of artists, many of whom also got their start in illustration, Ashcan artists such as John Sloan and Ernest Lawson combined the loose brushstrokes of Impressionism with a strong sense of social justice to examine the life of regular people, especially in New York City.

In addition to his career as an architect, Geerlings was also a decorated war veteran, having served in both World War I and World War II