Christine Josephine Kiehl

Christine Kiehl was a sculptor active in Missouri in the early 1900s. She was born on January 14, 1884, in Boeuf, Franklin County, Missouri, one of eight children of August and Anna Kiehl. Unable to attend college, Kiehl worked as a servant in the home of Dr. C.R. Bang in St. Louis before beginning night classes in art.

Kiehl was a hidden talent until she was 'discovered' by her employer. A story holds that she began sculpting busts out of bars of soap and giving them as gifts to Mrs. Bang. Bang submitted two of Kiehl’s soap sculptures, busts of Felix Mendelssohn and William Shakespeare, to an expert in Italian sculpture at the St. Louis World’s Fair and to George Zolnay of the St. Louis School of Fine Arts. Zolnay was impressed by Kiehl’s work, and In 1905 she enrolled in a drawing course at the school.

Although she had limited prior training, Kiehl was an exceptional student, earning Honorable Mention and Bronze and Silver Medals from the St. Louis School of Fine Arts between 1906 and 1909. She began showing her work professionally upon graduation and exhibited with the Society of Western Artists at the City Art Museum in 1910.

Kiehl’s work consisted primarily of statues and busts of mythical, historical and religious figures, including Diana, Venus, Augustus and Martin Luther. She is credited with assisting Zolnay with The Gates of Opportunity, a sculpture featuring two giant cast concrete lions that guards the entrance to University City, Missouri. One of her statues, Sculpture, was placed on the grounds of the Art Academy of the American Woman’s League.

Around 1913, Kiehl left St. Louis and moved to Lafayette County with her family. She died of influenza in 1920 at the age of thirty-six.