Joseph Keiffer

Joseph Keiffer Biography

Joseph Keiffer (b. 1952) has a personal affinity to Maine’s landscape and has spent the past twenty-plus years painting in and around the Acadia region. Keiffer was born in New York City, N.Y. His father was a painter and his mother was a writer, which enabled the family to spend quite a few years abroad, mainly in Europe. He began painting at the age of seventeen, while in Paris. The following year he enrolled at Brandeis University, and after several leaves of absence to attend the New York Studio School, he graduated from college, having majored in philosophy and art history.

Following a year at Sotheby’s “Works of Art” course, Keiffer was employed by Sotheby’s as a cataloguer and appraiser of paintings, and after six years there and three years at Doyle Galleries, he became president of a non-profit art foundation. Then in his thirties, he started painting full time, and for a living. In retrospect, Keiffer says “I learned more about the history of art from my years in the art trade than I did in college, and I learned more about painting by looking at reality than from anything taught in art school.” Keiffer lives in New York City and splits his time between the City, the Catskills, and Maine.

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