Cincinnati Artists and the Lure of Germany in the Nineteenth Century

Queen City Heritage Bust of Marquis de Lafayette by Frederick Eckstein, 1825. Cincinnati Art Museum, The Edwin and Virginia Irwin Memorial. (Figure 1) Winter 1999 Cincinnati Artists and the Lure of Germany Cincinnati Artists and the Lure of Germany in the Nineteenth Century John Wilson 1788; the German Johan Heckewelder wrote the first account of Cincinnati and the surrounding area in 1792. By 1840, 30 percent of the city's population At the civic and emotional center of the was German-speaking, prompting city officials to city of Cincinnati stands a graceful, monumental publish ordinances in both German and English, and bronze allegorical figure of water. Water showers prompting the usual social discrimination. Germans from the palms of her hands at the end of her out- settled into various neighborhoods, the most celebrat- stretched arms. Residents know the figure well; the ed of which was "Over-the-Rhine," so-named because plaza on which it sits, Fountain Square, has drawn the immigrants jocularly referred to the Miami-Erie Cincinnatians for over a century to celebrate sporting Canal that ran east-west north of downtown before and military victories, and continues to draw contro- curving south to the Ohio River as "The Rhine." To versy as disparate groups of all political persuasions get to the neighborhood from downtown, one had to exercise their right of freedom of speech under the go "over" the Rhine. First Amendment to the Constitution. During the While German artists were among the city's Oktoberfest-an homage not only to earliest to work in Cincinnati, the first of note was Cincinnati's lost heritage as a brewing center but also Frederick Eckstein, one of a family of artists, and who to its sister city link with Munich-as crowds listen to had trained at the Academy in Berlin under Johann bands and celebrate the end of the stifling Cincinnati Gottfried Schadow.1 Eckstein arrived in Cincinnati humidity, a glimpse of the fountain reinforces the late in 1823 from Philadelphia where he had lived feeling that there are few places in North America since 1794 and where with Charles Willson Peale he that bring German life and culture so clearly to mind. helped to establish the Pennsylvania Academy of the The sculpture, The Genius of Water, Fine Arts. Teaching at the school belonging to his dedicated in 1871 and known in Cincinnati as the sisters-in-law, Eckstein instantly became the most Tyler Davidson Fountain (after the brother-in-law notable artist in the city. Eckstein had exquisite tim- and partner of the donor, Henry Probasco) is the work ing, making a life mask of Andrew Jackson during the of August Von Kreling (1819-1876). Its presence in general's visit to Cincinnati in 1825, which was Cincinnati is emblematic of the almost unquestion- exhibited at the visit of the Revolutionary War hero able focus on Germany by Cincinnatians for artistic the Marquis de Lafayette that May. Eckstein mod- matters in the nineteenth century. Occasionally, eled a bust of Lafayette as well, despite the fact that Italy, France, or Great Britain would draw artists the marquis was only in Cincinnati for a day. from the city for their training, but Germany, in par- Eckstein evidently made sketches and notes from ticular Diisseldorf and Munich, attracted Cincinnati's which to model a bust (Fig. i), noted as "a good like- artists for the quality of their art schools and the ness"2 and he may well have fashioned it not to sell, resources of the collections. but to show off the abilities of the artist as no other Cincinnati's German heritage and large casts have survived and the original remained with German-speaking districts had much to do with the the family until 1957, when the Cincinnati Art attraction of German art schools. Germans had been Museum acquired it. a part of Cincinnati almost since its founding in Traditionally trained in Europe, Eckstein John Wilson earned master has recently published and doctoral degrees from American Art in the Procter & the Courtauld Institute of Art, Gamble Collection: The University of London. Historic Cincinnati Collection. Formerly curator of painting and sculpture at the Cincinnati Art Museum, he Queen City Heritage Summer Pastorale (View of Kallenfels) by Thomas W. Whittredge, 1853. Indianapolis Museum of Art, Daniel P. Erwin Fund. (Figure 2) Winter 1999 Cincinnati Artists and the Lure of Germany 5 undoubtedly aspired to bring similar training to summer 1852 or the dramatic landscape near Cincinnati, a city already with pretensions as a center Kallenfels in the Nahe Valley. Frequently Whittredge of learning. He lobbied for the establishment of a mixed sites in the same painting for artistic effect, European-style academy of art not only to train and his scenes ranged from somewhat romanticized artists, but to exhibit their work, casts, and the work vistas of the towering rocks, such as his Summer of foreign artists living and dead, and to provide lec- Pastorale, View of Kallenfels (1853, Indianapolis tures on a wide variety of art-related subjects. Museum of Art, Fig. 2) painted for E. J. Mathews of Formally established in 1827, The Academy of Fine Cincinnati,8 to his View of Kallenfels (Cincinnati Art Arts was dead the next year when popular sentiment Museum, Fig. 3) of July 1856, which emphasized not favored a more practical academy, which later became only the rocky mound of Steinkallenfels as it casts a the Ohio Mechanics Institute.1 Yet Eckstein's influ- shadow on the village, but also the bleak hills beyond ence should not be underestimated. He was the first the wooded copses. This picture also contains what master of Hiram Powers, the United States's most appears to be a funeral procession as it makes its way important neo-classical sculptor, and of Shobal to a walled cemetery. Clevenger, a sculptor of considerable promise who Whittredge also used the Nahe Valley died young. His efforts influenced most artists work- landscape as a setting for other works, such as The ing in Cincinnati at the time, and he is known, not Pilgrims of Saint Roch (private collection, California), unjustifiably, as the father of Cincinnati Art. a painting of such significance to the artist that he The first artist of any consequence to recalled it as one of his major works half-a-century leave the Cincinnati area and study abroad was later in his autobiography.9 This painting is set at Thomas Worthington Whittredge. Already an estab- Rochusberg, above Bingen, where the Nahe meets the lished artist in Cincinnati, Whittredge left in 1849 Rhine.10 The banners held by the figures heading with a $1,000 letter of credit and several commissions down the hill suggests that the painting may illus- for paintings in hand. Though his autobiography trate the return of pilgrims after the procession and claims he originally intended simply to travel in Mass, part of the annual festival of St. Roch, held the Europe, without taking any formal lessons, first Sunday after the August 15 feast of the Whittredge could not have been unaware of the signif- Assumption. The painting emphasizes the high open icance of Diisseldorf when he left the United States.5 plains, which lends even more solace to the grove of In Diisseldorf he worked with Emanuel Leutze, rented trees and the shrine where the pilgrims rest. Lessing a garret from Andreas Achenbach while avoiding for- painted similar views of the Nahe Valley, which also mal lessons, and later studied with Carl Friedrich made their way, undoubtedly via Whittredge, to Lessing and Johann Schirmer. Whittredge quickly Cincinnati, and which likewise take on a more absorbed the Diisseldorf manner and most of the work romantic and mysterious air, such as the Landscape he sent back to Cincinnati reflected the current work (1862, Cincinnati Art Museum), painted two years of Lessing and later Schirmer.6 after Whittredge had returned to the United States. Whittredge traveled much while living When the influence of the Barbizon in Diisseldorf. He later recalled, "I frequently went to school reached Dusseldorf, Whittredge's work the Hague, Dresden, Berlin and Antwerp with an changed accordingly. Anthony Janson has noted that occasional short visit to Paris to see the pictures, but Johann Schirmer began to work in a Barbizon manner for the most part I kept my studio in the old town. with a particularly German sensibility, and My summers were spent in Westphalia, in the Hartz Whittredge's paintings fell into line with Schirmer's [sic] Mountains or in the more immediate neighbor- method.11 Two of the works that Whittredge sent hood of Diisseldorf."7 Much of the work Whittredge back to Cincinnati are distinctly in this style: The sent back to Cincinnati contained motifs from these Mill, 1852, and Landscape in Westphalia, 1853 (both travels, especially trips to the Harz Mountains in late in the Cincinnati Art Museum).12 Whittredge painted Queen City Heritage View of Kallenfels by Thomas W. Whittredge, 1856. Cincinnati Art Museum, Gift of Mary Hanna. (Figure 3) Winter 1999 Cincinnati Artists and the Lure of Germany The Mill by Thomas W. Whittredge, 1852. Cincinnati Art Museum, Bequest of Reuben Springer. (Figure 4) Queen City Heritage The Mill (Fig. 4) for Reuben Springer, one of acquaintance" and he introduced Whittredge "into Cincinnati's greatest patrons of the arts, and he paint- society of fast, extravagant people."20 He and ed Landscape in Westphalia (Fig. 5) for George Ward Whittredge soon traveled to Dusseldorf where they Nichols, instrumental in founding what became the both joined Leutze in preparing Washington Crossing Art Academy of Cincinnati. Both paintings feature the Delaware.

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