Henry Mosler (June 6, 1841 – April 21, 1920) was a German-born painter who documented American life, including
colonial
Colonial or The Colonial may refer to:
* Colonial, of, relating to, or characteristic of a colony or colony (biology)
Architecture
* American colonial architecture
* French Colonial
* Spanish Colonial architecture
Automobiles
* Colonial (1920 au ...
themes,
Civil War
A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country).
The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...
illustrations, and portraits of men and women of society.
Early life
He was born in Tropplowitz,
Silesia
Silesia (, also , ) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately , and the population is estimated at around 8,000,000. Silesia is split ...
,
Prussia
Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...
(present-day
Opawica, Poland
Opawica ( cs, Opavice, german: Tropplowitz, Troplowitz, Silesian: ''Troplowice'') is a village located in Poland, in the Opole Voivodeship, Głubczyce County and Gmina Głubczyce, near the border with the Czech Republic. History
The present-da ...
), and moved with his family to New York in 1849, when he was 8 years old. His father, Gustavus Mosler, had worked as a lithographer in Europe, but in New York he found work as a cigar maker and tobacconist. In 1851, the family relocated to
Cincinnati
Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...
, Ohio, the site of a substantial German-Jewish community. Henry was apprenticed to a wood engraver, Horace C. Grosvenor, while still in his early teens, and also was taught the basics of painting by an amateur landscape painter, George Kerr.
Career
![AAA moslhenr 1817715](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ef/AAA_moslhenr_1817715.png)
After studying drawing by himself, Mosler became a draughtsman for a comic paper, the ''Omnibus'' (Cincinnati), in 1855. From 1859 to 1861 he studied under
James Henry Beard
James Henry Beard (April 22, 1812 – October 20, 1893) was an American painter who specialized in the genre of portraits. He was elected as a member of the National Academy of Design in 1872.
Early life
Beard was born in Buffalo, New York on ...
, and in 1862–63, during the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...
, served as an art correspondent of ''
Harper's Weekly
''Harper's Weekly, A Journal of Civilization'' was an American political magazine based in New York City. Published by Harper & Brothers from 1857 until 1916, it featured foreign and domestic news, fiction, essays on many subjects, and humor, ...
.'' As with most Jews in the North, Mosler was a strong Union supporter, and ''Harper's Weekly'' served as an important voice for the Union forces. He was an aide-de-camp with the army of Ohio from 1861 to 1863, and published 34 drawings in ''Harper's'', 18 of them depicting the Kentucky and Ohio Campaign in 1862.
He also did portraits of several generals.
In 1863 Mosler went to
Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in th ...
, where for almost three years he was at the
Royal Academy
The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its pur ...
, and studied under
Heinrich Mücke and
Albert Kindler; he subsequently went to
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
, where he studied for six months under
Ernest Hébert
Antoine Auguste Ernest Hébert (3 November 1817 – 5 December 1908) was a French academic painter.
Biography
Hébert was born in Grenoble, son of a notary in Grenoble, and moved in 1835 to Paris to study law. He simultaneously took art ...
.
[ He returned to Cincinnati in 1866, where received numerous portrait commissions.] He also created the first painting for which he received a significant degree of recognition, ''The Lost Cause'', which he exhibited at the National Academy of Design in 1868. This was soon followed by the group ''Betsy Ross Making the First American Flag''.
In 1874, Mosler returned to France, having married Sara Cahn of Cincinnati in 1869. He studied for three years under Carl Theodor von Piloty
Karl Theodor von Piloty (1 October 1826 – 21 July 1886) was a German painter, noted for his historical subjects, and recognised as the foremost representative of the realistic school in Germany.
Life and work
Piloty was born in Munich. His fat ...
in Munich
Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...
, where he won a medal at the Royal Academy
The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its pur ...
.[ In 1877, he moved to France. While living in Brittany, he painted ''The Quadroon Girl'' and ''Early Cares'', both of which were accepted by the Salon of 1879.] His ''Le Retour'', from the Paris Salon of 1879, was the first American painting ever bought for the Luxembourg Palace
The Luxembourg Palace (french: Palais du Luxembourg, ) is at 15 Rue de Vaugirard in the 6th arrondissement of Paris. It was originally built (1615–1645) to the designs of the French architect Salomon de Brosse to be the royal residence of the ...
. He received a silver medal at the Salons in Paris 1889, and gold medals at Paris, 1888, and Vienna, 1893.
In 1894 he moved his family to New York, opening a studio in Carnegie Hall. He served as an associate in the National Academy of Design, and continued painting well into the 20th century. He died of heart failure at the age of 78.
File:Harpers Weekly cover, September 27, 1862.jpg, ''Harper's Weekly'' cover, September 27, 1862, illustrated by Henry Mosler and depicting the City of Cincinnati, Ohio and Union Volunteers crossing the Ohio River to Covington on a pontoon bridge
File:The Lost Cause by Henry Mosler, Johnson Collection.jpg, ''The Lost Cause'', 1868. The Johnson Collection, Spartanburg, South Carolina.
File:'The Quadroon Girl' by Henry Mosler, Cincinnati Art Museum.JPG, ''The Quadroon
In the colonial societies of the Americas and Australia, a quadroon or quarteron was a person with one quarter African/ Aboriginal and three quarters European ancestry.
Similar classifications were octoroon for one-eighth black (Latin root ''octo ...
Girl'', 1878. Cincinnati Art Museum
The Cincinnati Art Museum is an art museum in the Eden Park neighborhood of Cincinnati, Ohio. Founded in 1881, it was the first purpose-built art museum west of the Alleghenies, and is one of the oldest in the United States. Its collection of ov ...
.
File:Le Retour Henry Mosler 1879.jpg, ''Le Retour'', 1879. Breton Departmental Museum, Quimper.
File:AugustusBourn.jpg, Augustus O. Bourn
Augustus Osborn Bourn (October 1, 1834January 29, 1925) was an American politician and the 36th Governor of Rhode Island.
Early life
Bourn was born in Providence, Rhode Island, on October 1, 1834. He was the son of George O. Bourn and Huldah ...
's official portrait, 1885 by Mosler
Legacy
His son, Gustave Henry Mosler
Gustave Henry Mosler (June 16, 1875 – August 17, 1906), was a United States painter.
He was a pupil of his father, Henry Mosler, and of Léon Bonnat
Léon Joseph Florentin Bonnat (20 June 1833 – 8 September 1922) was a French painter, Grand O ...
, was also an artist. His other son, Arthur Rembrandt Mosler, was an engineer who married the famous soprano and voice teacher Estelle Liebling
Estelle Liebling (April 21, 1880 – September 25, 1970) was an American soprano, composer, arranger, music editor, and celebrated voice teacher and vocal coach.
Born into the Liebling family of musicians, she began her professional opera car ...
. His granddaughter, Audrey Skirball-Kenis
Audrey Skirball-Kenis (December 19, 1914 – June 19, 2002) was an American philanthropist.
Early years
Audrey Skirball-Kenis was born Audrey Marx in Birmingham, Alabama, the daughter of Otto Marx Sr., and Agnes Mosler Marx. Her father's banking ...
(''née'' Marx), was a philanthropist in Los Angeles and founder of the Skirball Cultural Center
The Skirball Cultural Center, founded in 1996, is a Jewish educational institution in Los Angeles, California. The center, named after philanthropist-couple Jack H. Skirball and Audrey Skirball-Kenis, features a museum with regularly changing e ...
. His great-grandson, John F. McCrindle, was an art collector and patron of artists and writers, founding the Joseph F. McCrindle Foundation to award grants to arts, music and social justice organizations. His students included Wilder M. Darling, an artist and teacher based in Toledo.
Examples of his work are in currently in the collections of the Allentown Art Museum
The Allentown Art Museum of the Lehigh Valley is an art museum located in Allentown, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1934 by a group organized by noted Pennsylvania impressionist painter, Walter Emerson Baum. With its collection of over 19,000 wo ...
, the Wichita Art Museum
The Wichita Art Museum is an art museum located in Wichita, Kansas, United States.
The museum was established in 1915, when Louise Caldwell Murdock’s Will which created a trust to start the Roland P. Murdock Collection of art in memory of her ...
, the Smithsonian American Art Museum
The Smithsonian American Art Museum (commonly known as SAAM, and formerly the National Museum of American Art) is a museum in Washington, D.C., part of the Smithsonian Institution. Together with its branch museum, the Renwick Gallery, SAAM holds o ...
, the Huntington Library
The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens, known as The Huntington, is a collections-based educational and research institution established by Henry E. Huntington (1850–1927) and Arabella Huntington (c.1851–1924) in San Mar ...
, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 paintings and more than 450,000 works ...
, the Morris Museum of Art in Augusta, the Sydney Art Museum, NSW, the Cincinnati Art Museum
The Cincinnati Art Museum is an art museum in the Eden Park neighborhood of Cincinnati, Ohio. Founded in 1881, it was the first purpose-built art museum west of the Alleghenies, and is one of the oldest in the United States. Its collection of ov ...
, the Richmond Art Museum
The Richmond Art Museum was founded in 1898 as the Art Association of Richmond, Indiana. Artist John Elwood Bundy and author and attorney William Dudley Foulke were instrumental in the founding.
Permanent collection
Its collection includes imp ...
, the art museums of Springfield, Massachusetts
Springfield is a city in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, United States, and the seat of Hampden County. Springfield sits on the eastern bank of the Connecticut River near its confluence with three rivers: the western Westfield River, the ...
, and various museums in New York.
Notes
*
References
External links
Henry Mosler papers online
Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution
Henry Mosler's Civil War Diary
digital exhibition
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mosler, Henry
1841 births
1920 deaths
19th-century American painters
19th-century American male artists
20th-century American painters
American male painters
American illustrators
Artists from Cincinnati
Jewish painters
Painters from Ohio
People from Głubczyce County
Pont-Aven painters
Silesian emigrants to the United States
20th-century American male artists