(1899-1964) was born in Essen, Germany. He was apprenticed to a stone carver after leaving high school and later studied art at the State School of Applied Arts in Munich. Kreis came to the United States in 1933 where he earned his living as a stone cutter and studied at the Beaux Arts Institute of Design, and later with Paul Manship. During the Great Depression he participated in the Work Progress Administration. Kreis was a member of the National Sculpture Society, Architectural League of New York and the Connecticut Academy of Fine Arts and became a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1951. He received a number of prizes for his work and exhibited at the National Sculpture Society; Connecticut Academy of Fine Arts Architectural League; Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts; Whitney Museum of American Art; National Academy of Design; and the Art Institute of Chicago. His sculptures are on view on public and private buildings in Washington and New York. Kreis' interest in the design of coins and medals won him the Saltus Medal from the American Numismatic Society. Among the medals Kreis designed are those commemorating the Connecticut Tercentenary and the New York Worlds Fair, as well as coins for the United States. For a number of years Kreis was on the faculty at the Hartford Art School.

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