Kenneth Hayes Miller

American (1876-1952)

Kenneth Hayes Miller was born in Oneida, New York, in 1876.  He studied at the Art Students League and the Parsons School of Design (formerly the New York School of Art and the Chase School of Art) under William Merritt Chase.

Early in his career, Miller employed Renaissance draftsmanship and glazing techniques.  This traditional approach was coupled with traditional subject matter, namely, nude or semi-nude figures in hazy or romantic settings.  Once Miller moved to Fourteenth Street in New York City in 1923, his subject matter shifted and he began depicting the daily routines of passersby.  The shift from isolated figure to everyday life marked a conceptual shift from traditionalism to modernism.

Miller was an important teacher at the Parsons School of Design from 1900 to 1911, and the Art Students League from 1912 to 1936.  He taught the next generation of urban realists including Isobel Bishop, George Bellows, Reginald Marsh and Edward Hopper.

Miller was a member of the American Society of Painters, Sculptors and Gravers, the Philadelphia Society of Engravers, the National Academy of Design.  He exhibited at the National Academy of Design, the Art Institute of Chicago, Corcoran Biennials, the New York City Armory Show in 1913, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art and the Salons of America.