Peter Frederick Rothermel

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Peter Frederick Rothermel , around 1885

Peter Frederick Rothermel (born July 8, 1817 in Nescopeck, Luzerne County , Pennsylvania , † August 15, 1895 in Linfield, Limerick Township , Montgomery County , Pennsylvania) was an American portrait and history painter and etcher . As the director of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts , he was one of the earliest academic art teachers in the United States.

Life

Rothermel, son of the innkeeper and farmer Peter F. Rothermel, initially worked as an acolyte and moved to Philadelphia at the age of about twenty , where he worked as a sign painter and took lessons in painting and drawing from the graphic artist, painter and art teacher John Rubens Smith and from the painter and lithographer Bass Otis (1784–1861). After initially working as a portrait painter, he made a name for himself as a history painter in the early 1840s. As such, he appeared in 1842 with the large-format painting Columbus Before the Queen , in which the romantic and dramatic qualities of his later pictures were already laid out, the material of which he took from history, literature and the Bible. In 1844 he began to play a prominent role in Philadelphia's art life as Vice President of the Artists' Fund Society . From 1847 to 1855 he served as director of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts . During this time he was involved in establishing a curriculum at the academy. In 1860 he became her Academician , later President of the Council of Academicians , in 1864 President of the Artists' Fund Society . He was also on the advisory board of Centennial Exhibition . In Philadelphia, New York City and other places he took part in exhibitions, in 1859 with three pictures at the Salon de Paris . His illustrations and reproductions of his paintings have appeared in various journals, such as Godey's Lady's Book , Sartain's Union Magazine of Art and Literature, and The Opal .

Rothermel married Caroline G. Goodhart (1819–1903), who gave birth to sons John G. Rothermel (1846–1928) and Peter Frederick Rothermel (1850–1929). In 1856 Rothermel went on a trip to Europe, visiting London , Düsseldorf , Munich , Genoa , Venice and Florence . He stayed longer in Rome and its surroundings during this trip.

Works (selection)

King Lear (The King and the Beggar) , 1858
  • Columbus Before the Queen , 1842
  • De Soto Raising the Cross on the Banks of the Mississippi , 1851
  • King Lear , 1858, Dayton Art Institute
  • First Reading of the Declaration of Independence , 1861
  • The Last Sigh of the Moor , 1864
  • The Battle of Gettysburg - Pickett's Charge , 1867-1870, State Museum of Pennsylvania, Harrisburg

literature

  • Mark Thistlethwaite: Painting in the Grand Manner: The Art of Peter Frederick Rothermel (1812–1895) . In: Pennsylvania History , pp. 560 f. ( PDF )
  • Peter Hastings Falk: Who was Who in American Art . Sound View, Madison 1985, ISBN 0-932087-00-0 , p. 531

Web links

Commons : Peter F. Rothermel  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bettina Baumgärtel , Sabine Schroyen, Lydia Immerheiser, Sabine Teichgröb: Directory of foreign artists. Nationality, residence and studies in Düsseldorf . In .: Bettina Baumgärtel (Hrsg.): The Düsseldorf School of Painting and its international impact 1819–1918 . Michael Imhof Verlag, Petersberg 2011, ISBN 978-3-86568-702-9 , Volume 1, p. 438
personal data
SURNAME Rothermel, Peter Frederick
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American portrait and history painter and etcher, director of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
DATE OF BIRTH July 8, 1817
PLACE OF BIRTH Nescopeck , Lucerne County , Pennsylvania
DATE OF DEATH August 15, 1895
Place of death Linfield , Limerick Township , Montgomery County , Pennsylvania