Hugo Wilhelm Arthur Nahl
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Arthur Nahl (1 September 1833 – 1 April 1889) was a German-born artist, daguerreotyper, engraver,
portraitist A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expressions are predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the person. For this re ...
, and
landscape painter Landscape painting, also known as landscape art, is the depiction of natural scenery such as mountains, valleys, trees, rivers, and forests, especially where the main subject is a wide view—with its elements arranged into a coherent composi ...
. Nahl was a painter known for his American Old West paintings of
California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
. He was considered one of California's finest engravers, and was ranked amongst the best gymnasts in California for his time.


Early life

He was the son of Henriette (Weickh) Nahl (1796–1863). Henriette and her first husband, Georg Valentin Friedrich Nahl, had one son, the American West painter
Charles Christian Nahl Carl Christian Heinrich Nahl (October 18, 1818 – March 1, 1878), later known as Charles Nahl (sometimes he is recorded as Karl Nahl, Charles Christian Nahl or Charles C. Nahl), was a German-born painter who lived in the United States for the las ...
(1818–1878). Henriette and Georg divorced in 1826. In that year, she began a relationship with Georg's cousin, Alexander Theodor Nahl. After tiring of him, she began a relationship with Alexander's brother, Wilhelm Nahl. While Wilhelm was Hugo's biological parent, he considered Alexander to be his father. Henriette and Wilhelm had one other child, a daughter, Laura. Nahl was descended from a family of German artists dating to the 17th century. His great-grandfather was Johann August Nahl, the German sculptor and stuccist. His early art studies were with Charles and the family friend
Frederick August Wenderoth Frederick August Wenderoth or F. A. Wenderoth (1819 – 1884) was a German-born American painter and photographer. Born and educated in Cassel, where he first learned to paint from his father, he established a lifelong friendship with Charles Ch ...
. He later studied at the Kassel Academy. Nahl moved with his mother, two brothers, and two sisters to
Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, 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), ma ...
in 1846. Here, Arthur and Charles studied with Emile Jean Horace Vernet and Hippolyte Delaroche. Charles went on to study at the Louvre Palace, Palace of Versailles, and
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 th ...
galleries. He received his first gold medal at age 16. Three years later, they moved to
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, settling in
Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
. In 1851, they sailed by way of Panama to California in search of gold. The family bought a mine on Deer Creek near
Rough and Ready, California Rough and Ready is a census-designated place in Nevada County, California, United States. It is located west of Grass Valley, California, approximately 62 miles (100 km) from Sacramento. The population was 963 at the 2010 census. It has frequ ...
, which fared poorly. Within a year, the family moved to
Sacramento ) , image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg , mapsize = 250x200px , map_caption = Location within Sacramento ...
where Nahl worked as a
woodcarver Wood carving is a form of woodworking by means of a cutting tool (knife) in one hand or a chisel by two hands or with one hand on a chisel and one hand on a mallet, resulting in a wooden figure or figurine, or in the sculptural ornamentation ...
. After the
1852 Sacramento fire Year 185 ( CLXXXV) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Lascivius and Atilius (or, less frequently, year 938 ''Ab urbe cond ...
, they moved to
San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
.


Career

Nahl worked in charcoal, crayon, oil, and watercolor. His subjects included animals, landscapes, portraits, and
genre works Genre art is the pictorial representation in any of various media of scenes or events from everyday life, such as markets, domestic settings, interiors, parties, inn scenes, work, and street scenes. Such representations (also called genre works, ...
. In San Francisco, Charles partnered first with his family friend Wenderoth. After Wenderoth married one of the Nahl sisters and moved to Philadelphia, Charles began a partnership with Arthur. The Nahl brothers worked as commercial artists, daguerreotypers, engravers, and portrait painters. They became San Francisco's leading lithographers and specialized in
souvenir A souvenir (), memento, keepsake, or token of remembrance is an object a person acquires for the memories the owner associates with it. A souvenir can be any object that can be collected or purchased and transported home by the traveler as a m ...
stationery. They created many wood carvings from photograph images. With his brother and William Dieckmann, Nahl formed the partnership of Nahl Brothers and Dieckmann in 1867, an art and photograph gallery at
121 Montgomery Street 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...
in San Francisco. When Isaiah West Taber bought out the Nahl's photography department, Nahl worked for him, coloring and retouching the photographs. Nahl collaborated with others, including
Bret Harte Bret Harte (; born Francis Brett Hart; August 25, 1836 – May 5, 1902) was an American short story writer and poet best remembered for short fiction featuring miners, gamblers, and other romantic figures of the California Gold Rush. In a caree ...
, on the cover design of '' Overland Monthly''. His exhibitions included: *
American Art Union The American Art-Union (1839–1851) was a subscription-based organization whose goal was to enlighten and educate an American public to a national art, while providing a support system for the viewing and sales of art “executed by artists in th ...
*
San Francisco Art Association The San Francisco Art Association (SFAA) was an organization that promoted California artists, held art exhibitions, published a periodical, and established the first art school west of Chicago. The SFAA – which, by 1961, completed a long sequence ...
* California Exposition & State Fair, 1888 (medal) *
California Midwinter International Exposition of 1894 The California Midwinter International Exposition of 1894, commonly referred to as the "Midwinter Exposition" or the "Midwinter Fair", was a World's Fair that officially operated from January 27 to July 5 in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. In ...
Nahl's art works are held at the
Oakland Museum The Oakland Museum of California or OMCA (formerly the Oakland Museum) is an interdisciplinary museum dedicated to the art, history, and natural science of California, located adjacent to Oak Street, 10th Street, and 11th Street in Oakland, Cal ...
and the
California Historical Society The California Historical Society (CHS) is the official historical society of California. It was founded in 1871, by a group of prominent Californian intellectuals at Santa Clara University. It was officially designated as the Californian state ...
.


Personal life

The Nahl brothers were fine athletes. At their home in San Francisco's Bush Street, their backyard gymnasium served as the early version of the Olympic Club and was its headquarters during the period of 1855 to 1860. At Nahl's suggestion, it was named the "San Francisco Olympic Club" and, at the club's inaugural meeting on May 6, 1860, Nahl was elected its leader. Nahl married Annie Sweeney in 1865 and they moved to
Alameda An alameda is a Avenue (landscape), street or path lined with trees () and may refer to: Places Canada *Alameda, Saskatchewan, town in Saskatchewan **Grant Devine Dam, formerly ''Alameda Dam'', a dam and reservoir in southern Saskatchewan Chile ...
. One of Nahl's sons,
Perham Wilhelm Nahl Perham Wilhelm Nahl (January 11, 1869 – April 9, 1935) was an American printmaker, painter, illustrator and an arts educator active in Northern California. An online facsimile of the entire text of Vol. 1 is posted on the Traditional Fine Arts Or ...
(1869–1935), became an artist and art professor at the
University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Franci ...
, and founder of the California College of Arts and Crafts. Another son, Virgil Theodore Nahl (1876–1930), went to work as a staff artist for the '' San Francisco Examiner''. A third son, Arthur Charles Nahl, was a mining engineer; his daughters Marion and Phyllis a ballet dancer, Margery, was an impressionist painter. Nahl died in 1889 on a ferry in San Francisco Bay en route to Alameda.


Partial bibliography

* Nahl, A., & Nahl, C. C. (1863). ''Instructions in gymnastics by Arthur and Charles Nahl: Illustrated with 53 plates, containing several hundred figures''. San Fran: A. Rosenfield.


Selected gallery

Arthur Nahl, Sutters's Mill.gif, ''Sutter's Mill, 1851. First Discovery of Gold in California, January 19th, 1848.'' (1851) Oil on canvas. Hugo Wilhelm Arthur Nahl 1852, The Fire in Sacramento.jpg, ''The Fire in Sacramento.'' (1852) Watercolor on paper; displayed at the
Oakland Museum of California The Oakland Museum of California or OMCA (formerly the Oakland Museum) is an interdisciplinary museum dedicated to the art, history, and natural science of California, located adjacent to Oak Street, 10th Street, and 11th Street in Oakland, Cal ...
Hugo Wilhelm Arthur Nahl 1857, Lombard, North Point and Greenwich Docks, San Francisco Bay.jpg, ''Lombard, North Point and Greenwich Docks, San Francisco Bay.'' (1857) Hand-colored lithograph on paper.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nahl, Charles Christian 1833 births 1889 deaths People from Alameda, California Artists from Kassel 19th-century American painters 19th-century American male artists American male painters American landscape painters Artists from the San Francisco Bay Area Artists of the American West German emigrants to the United States People who died at sea American portrait painters