Described as an artist whose "love of nature amounted to a passion," Charles Salis Kaelin was one of the earliest American exponents of Divisionism. A respected member of the art colony at Rockport, Massachusetts, Kaelin's colorful renderings of Cape Ann scenery were championed by many of his fellow artists, including Frank Duveneck, one of the first to recognize the high quality and innovative nature of his work.

Kaelin was born in Cincinnati in 1858, the son of a Swiss lithographer. Following in his father's footsteps, he entered a local lithographic firm at the age of sixteen. In the fall of 1877, he enrolled in evening classes at the McMicken School of Design (later known as the Art Academy of Cincinnati), where he was taught by...