Francis Charles Portzline (1771 - 1857) was an American

fraktur Fraktur () is a calligraphic hand of the Latin alphabet and any of several blackletter typefaces derived from this hand. The blackletter lines are broken up; that is, their forms contain many angles when compared to the curves of the Antiqu ...

artist of

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birth. A native of

Solingen Solingen (; li, Solich) is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located some 25 km east of Düsseldorf along the northern edge of the region called Bergisches Land, south of the Ruhr area, and, with a 2009 population of 161,366, ...

, Portzline migrated to the United States in 1777, and settled in Franklin Township, York County,

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

, around 1800. There he operated a general store; its account book still exists in the hands of his descendants. He married Sabina Heiges, a member of a local family, and is believed to have been a schoolteacher at the Franklin Church. Achieving American citizenship in 1804, in 1812 he sold his York County property and moved to Perry County; some years later he moved again, to Snyder County, which would be his home until his death. His property was located along the

Susquehanna River The Susquehanna River (; Lenape: Siskëwahane) is a major river located in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, overlapping between the lower Northeast and the Upland South. At long, it is the longest river on the East Coast of the ...

, in Perry Township, at the time part of Union County. While living there he continued to farm and teach. The Portzline family cemetery, containing the artist's grave, still exists in Perry Township. As an artist Portzline is remembered today for a handful of baptismal records for children in the neighborhood, distinguished by their border designs of brightly colored animals. His work incorporates both

and

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. Several pieces, primarily certificates for his own children, are known to survive. Six of his pieces are held by the

Philadelphia Museum of Art The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMoA) is an art museum originally chartered in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The main museum building was completed in 1928 on Fairmount, a hill located at the northwest end of the Benjamin Fr ...

; other collections holding examples of his work include those of the

Winterthur Museum Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library is an American estate and museum in Winterthur, Delaware. Pronounced “winter-tour," Winterthur houses one of the richest collections of Americana in the United States. The museum and estate were the home o ...

, which owns three works; the

Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum (AARFAM) is the United States' first and the world's oldest continually operated museum dedicated to the preservation, collection, and exhibition of American folk art. Located just outside the histori ...

, which owns two; and the

Free Library of Philadelphia The Free Library of Philadelphia is the public library system that serves Philadelphia. It is the 13th-largest public library system in the United States. The Free Library of Philadelphia is a non-Mayoral agency of the City of Philadelphia gove ...

, which owns one, as does the

Hood Museum of Art The Hood Museum of Art is owned and operated by Dartmouth College, located in Hanover, New Hampshire, in the United States. The first reference to the development of an art collection at Dartmouth dates to 1772, making the collection among the o ...

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native A ...

. He was among the folk artists featured in an exhibit at the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

in 1932 and 1933.

References

1771 births 1857 deaths American male painters 19th-century American painters 19th-century American male artists People from York County, Pennsylvania People from Snyder County, Pennsylvania Fraktur artists Schoolteachers from Pennsylvania Painters from Pennsylvania People from Solingen Emigrants from the Holy Roman Empire 19th-century American educators Immigrants to the United States {{US-painter-stub