Miller, Kenneth Hayes

Miller, Kenneth Hayes (1876–1952). American painter and teacher. He was born in Oneida, New York, and studied at the Art Students League and then at the New York School of Art, where he joined the teaching staff in 1899 after returning from a trip to Europe. In 1911 he moved to the Art Students League, teaching there intermittently until 1951. During this career of more than half a century he became one of the most renowned teachers of the day; his pupils included George Bellows, Isabel Bishop, Edward Hopper, Reginald Marsh, and George Tooker. Miller's early paintings had been in a romantic vein, influenced by his friendship with Albert Pinkham Ryder, but from about 1920 his work became more solid and intellectual, influenced by Renaissance figure compositions. His subjects, however, were contemporary, notably scenes of women shopping (The Fitting Room, Metropolitan Museum, New York, 1931), and his preference for depicting everyday New York life influenced several of his pupils. In 1923 Miller began working in a studio in 14th Street, in the heart of the city's shopping district, and some of the painters influenced by him in the interwar period are known as ‘The Fourteenth Street School'. During his lifetime he was highly regarded as an artist as well as a teacher, but he was virtually forgotten after his death. Interest in him greatly revived in the 1970s.