Johan Mengels Culverhouse

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Johan Mengels Culverhouse , erroneously also Johann Mongels Culverhouse (born August 29, 1820 in Rotterdam , † December 18, 1894 in Philadelphia ), was a Dutch-American genre , vedute and history painter .

Life

Pub Scene , 1846, Smithsonian American Art Museum , Washington, DC
Moonlight scene of Clinton Square on the Erie Canal in Syracuse , 1871, Onondaga Historical Association, Syracuse
Skating on the Wissahickon , 1875, Metropolitan Museum of Art , New York City

Culverhouse was the fourth of six children of the British, Rotterdam-based translator Richard Culverhouse (1780-1848) and his Dutch wife Cornelia Mengels (1791-1844). According to sources, he studied painting at the Düsseldorf Art Academy . Therefore he is counted at the Düsseldorf School of Painting . However, this is not without controversy, as he does not appear in the student lists of the Düsseldorf Academy. It is also conceivable that he stayed in the vicinity of the Royal Prussian Art Academy for study purposes and took private lessons there.

From 1843 Culverhouse had his own studio in Rotterdam. In 1845 he exhibited in Groningen and in 1846 in Rotterdam. In the same year he was proven in The Hague . In the Netherlands he soon gained a reputation as a specialist in domestic genre scenes in romantic moonlight and candlelight. He traveled to the United States around the middle of the 19th century . In 1849 he participated in an exhibition at the American Academy of the Fine Art . In the same year the American Art-Union exhibited seven of his works, bought them and sold them to their subscribers, later another six works, which were auctioned off to the public in 1852. In 1851 the Boston Athenæum and the New Jersey Art-Union exhibited it, and in 1852 the National Academy of Design and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts .

Probably in the late 1850s, at the latest at the beginning of the Civil War , Culverhouse returned to Europe, where he was represented at the Salon de Paris in 1857, 1859, 1861, 1863 and 1864 with a Paris address . He was also represented at an exhibition in Antwerp in 1861 and at an exhibition in Amsterdam in 1862 .

He went back to the United States in the mid-1860s. There he exhibited in the National Academy of Design in 1865 and 1866, quoting a New York address. In 1867 he sent an exhibition to the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia. In 1871/1872 he lived for a time in Syracuse , New York. In 1877 and 1878, Brooklyn Art Association exhibitions mentioned him .

Culverhouse's preferred motifs included depictions of ice skating , which had already been introduced to the North American east coast by Dutch settlers and became popular as a pastime during the 19th century. In 1861 he painted Napoleon III and Empress Eugenie and their Court Skating at Bois de Boulogne , in 1865 he created the painting Skating in Central Park , in 1875 the picture Skating on the Wissahickon .

literature

  • Culverhouse, Johan Mengels . In: Pieter A. Scheen : Lexicon Nederlandse beeldende kunstenaars, 1750-1880 . The Hague 1981, p. 105.
  • Johan Mengels Culverhouse . In: Natalie Spassky et al .: American Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art . Volume 2: A Catalog of Works by Artists Born between 1816 and 1845 . The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York / NY 1985, p. 131 f. ( Google Books ).
  • Culverhouse, Johan Mengels . In: General Artist Lexicon . KG Saur, Munich 1999, volume 23, p. 71.

Web links

Commons : Johan Mengels Culverhouse  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Syracuse By Moonlight , website on cnyhistory.org , accessed April 20, 2019
  2. ↑ Birth register of the municipality of Rotterdam, archive 999-01, inventory number 1820B, 1820, archive number 1820.1527, Folio b060
  3. ^ Museum Kunstpalast : Artists of the Düsseldorf School of Painting (selection, as of November 2016), PDF
  4. ↑ Christopher Forbes: Napoleon III and Eugenie. Opulence and Splendor of France's Second Empire . Nassau County Museum of Art, Florence Gould Foundation, BPR Publishers, 2009, ISBN 978-0-9815-6444-9 , p. 17
personal data
SURNAME Culverhouse, Johan Mengels
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Dutch-American genre, vedute and history painter
DATE OF BIRTH August 29, 1820
PLACE OF BIRTH Rotterdam
DATE OF DEATH December 18, 1894
Place of death Philadelphia