Jacob Maentel or Mental (1763–1863) was a

German-American German Americans (german: Deutschamerikaner, ) are Americans who have full or partial German ancestry. With an estimated size of approximately 43 million in 2019, German Americans are the largest of the self-reported ancestry groups by the Unite ...

folk art Folk art covers all forms of visual art made in the context of folk culture. Definitions vary, but generally the objects have practical utility of some kind, rather than being exclusively decorative. The makers of folk art are typically tr ...

ist known for his portrayal of 19th-Century America. Maentel is most notable for his

watercolor Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (British English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin ''aqua'' "water"), is a painting method”Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to ...

portrait art that minutely portrayed the décor and dress of early American immigrant communities. Little was known of Maentel's life until American art historian

Mary Black Mary Black (born 23 May 1955) is an Irish folk singer. She is well known as an interpreter of both traditional folk and modern material which has made her a major recording artist in her native Ireland. Background Mary Black was born into a m ...

reconstructed his life through her scholarship beginning in the 1960s.

Early life

Maentel was born Johann Adam Bernhard Jacob Maentel in

Kassel, Germany Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel and the district of the same name and had 201,048 inhabitants in December 2020. ...

in 1763. After training as a physician, Maentel worked as a mercenary and entered

Napoleon Bonaparte Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader wh ...

's Army during the

War of the Third Coalition The War of the Third Coalition) * In French historiography, it is known as the Austrian campaign of 1805 (french: Campagne d'Autriche de 1805) or the German campaign of 1805 (french: Campagne d'Allemagne de 1805) was a European conflict spanni ...

where, according to tradition, he served as Napoleon's secretary in

Westphalia Westphalia (; german: Westfalen ; nds, Westfalen ) is a region of northwestern Germany and one of the three historic parts of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It has an area of and 7.9 million inhabitants. The territory of the regio ...

. In 1806 Maentel was discharged from the French Army around the time of his father's death.

Eastern United States

Maentel immigrated to the United States in 1806 after first living in

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

where he advertised portrait commissions. He was traveling to and from Pennsylvania by 1807 where he produced portraits of Dauphin, Lebanon, and York County residents. During the

War of 1812 The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States, United States of America and its Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous allies against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom ...

, Maentel served in the Second Regiment of the Second Brigade of the Pennsylvania Militia. He was naturalized as a US citizen in 1815 at the culmination of his service. During his time in the militia, Maentel produced portraits of his regiment's officers and their families Maentel married Catherine Weaver of Baltimore in 1821. They had four children: William, Louisa (later married to

Owenite Owenism is the utopian socialist philosophy of 19th-century social reformer Robert Owen and his followers and successors, who are known as Owenites. Owenism aimed for radical reform of society and is considered a forerunner of the cooperative ...

educator-turned-capitalist Thomas Mumford Sr.), Wilhemina, and Frederick. Following his marriage, Maentel lived in Lebanon County, Pennsylvania and produced numerous portraits of local residents, many of them German-Americans over the next 20 years.

New Harmony, Indiana

In 1836 Maentel and his family began the westward journey to Texas which was a magnet for many Pennsylvania German immigrants. They became ill en route and convalesced in

New Harmony, Indiana New Harmony is a historic town on the Wabash River in Harmony Township, Posey County, Indiana. It lies north of Mount Vernon, the county seat, and is part of the Evansville metropolitan area. The town's population was 789 at the 2010 census. ...

. New Harmony was the site of a failed German

utopia A utopia ( ) typically describes an imaginary community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book '' Utopia'', describing a fictional island societ ...

nist community and was sold to Maclure-

reformers and intellectuals in 1825. Taken with the community, Maentel and his family settled in the former utopian village. As late as 1850, Maentel continued to work as an itinerant portrait painter in Indiana and Illinois. While in New Harmony, Maentel painted the prominent Cooper, Jacques, and Faul families including

triptych A triptych ( ; from the Greek adjective ''τρίπτυχον'' "''triptukhon''" ("three-fold"), from ''tri'', i.e., "three" and ''ptysso'', i.e., "to fold" or ''ptyx'', i.e., "fold") is a work of art (usually a panel painting) that is divided ...

s on fireplace hearth screens. Examples of these are preserved in the Jacques Parlor maintained as a museum.

Later life and death

Maentel lived and painted in New Harmony until his death in 1863. Much of his work was lost in an 1858 fire including miniature portraits of his sisters, his Army discharge papers, and other portraiture. Salvaged from the fire was book of "Materia Medica" handwritten to include a recipe for "Mental Salve," still singed and in a family collection. Maentel spent his last years living with his daughter Louisa and the Mumford family. Maentel died in 1863 and is interred in the Mumford plot at Maple Hill Cemetery. A New Harmony Gazette entry notes the following: ''"Old man Mantle, one of Bonaparte's old soldiers died today pril 28, 1863he was near 100 years old, born June 15, 1763."''

Style

Maentel's portraiture style was distinctive due to his use of profile. Maentel captured his subject's personalities through realistic, and sometimes unflattering, portrayals. His work relied on diagonal design, detailed facial and body characteristics, and oriental treatment of foliage. Maentel's whimsical and untrained style influenced a school of 19th century portraiture unique to Pennsylvania-Dutch communities. During his time in the militia, Maentel painted portraits of military officers and members of their families, backdropped by detailed home decorations, and typically showing them posed in the corners of well-furnished parlors. These portraits set in interiors are valued today as documentation of the local ethnic community’s style of domestic furnishing. Maentel also pictured his subjects in landscape settings. Additionally, Maentel produced illustrations for marriage and birth certificates in the tradition of ''fraktur'' painting characteristic of the Pennsylvania Dutch community.

Legacy

Maentel's produced portraiture prolifically for over fifty years. While the majority of portraits were painted in Southeastern Pennsylvania (Lancaster, York, Dauphin, Berks and Lebanon counties), It was later that the artist moved westward to Indiana where his work included fireplace screens and wall decorations. Maentel's works appear in a number of museums including 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 ...

Winterthur , neighboring_municipalities = Brütten, Dinhard, Elsau, Hettlingen, Illnau-Effretikon, Kyburg, Lindau, Neftenbach, Oberembrach, Pfungen, Rickenbach, Schlatt, Seuzach, Wiesendangen, Zell , twintowns = Hall in Tirol (Austria ...

, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and the

American Folk Art Museum The American Folk Art Museum is an art museum in the Upper West Side of Manhattan, at 2, Lincoln Square, Columbus Avenue at 66th Street. It is the premier institution devoted to the aesthetic appreciation of folk art and creative expressions of ...

Selected works

File:Peter Zimmerman Portrait.jpg, Peter Zimmerman Portrait. American Folk Art Museum. File:Portrait of Mary Boucher. Jacob Maentel.jpg, Mary Boucher Portrait. American Folk Art Museum. File:Portrait of a boy. Jacob Maentel.jpg, Portrait of a boy. Jacob Maentel. File:Portrait and Birth Record of Mahala Wechter MET 264933.jpg, Portrait and Birth Record of Mahala Wechter in ''fraktur'' style. Jacob Maentel. Metropolitan Museum of Art.

References

{{Authority control 1763 births American folk artists 1863 deaths American people of German descent People from Kassel American military personnel of the War of 1812 Owenites