Creator Record
Metadata
Name |
Mosler, Henry, 1841-1920 |
Other names |
Henry Mosler |
Dates & places of birth and death |
b. June 6, 1841 Tropplowitz, Silesia, Prussia d. April 21, 1920 New York, New York |
Occupation |
Portrait painter Genre painter Wood engraver Sketch artist Illustrator |
Education |
Studied with James Henry Beard Attended the Royal Academy in Dusseldorf Studied with Ernest Herbert in Paris |
Notes |
Henry Mosler was born in Troplowitz, Silesia, the eldest son of Gustave and Sophie Mosler. In 1849 the family left Prussia to come to New York and were among the 200,000 German-Jewish immigrants who came to United States between 1830 and 1880. Henry's father Gustave was trained as a lithographer. After living in New York City for two years, the family moved to Cincinnati, Ohio. At a young age, Henry began drawing lessons and worked as a wood engraver. He began training as a professional artist in 1859, and went on to be an active participant in Cincinnati's art community. His portrait commissions provided him with the financial support to be a full-time artist. With the onset of the American Civil War in 1861, Mosler was hired as an artist correspondent for "Harper's Weekly," a voice for the Union forces during the war. Like most Jews in the North, Mosler was a strong Union supporter and served as an aide-de-camp with the army of Ohio from 1861 to 1863. He ultimately had 34 drawings published in the weekly, with 18 depicting the Kentucky and Ohio Campaign in 1862. After the war, Mosler continued his art training in Düsseldorf, Germany and Paris, France between 1863 to 1865. During that time he became a notable painter. He returned to Cincinnati for close to eight years, then lived in Munich and later Paris where his artistic focus turned to genre painting. In 1879, the French government bought its first American painting, Le Retour, painted by Mosler and winner of an honorable mention in the Paris Salon of 1879. Mosler continued to win many honors in France and established himself a painter of importance in both American and French artistic circles. In 1894, he returned to the United States and settled in New York. He continued to work until his death in 1920. Mosler stands as one of the gifted American artists to emerge in the latter half of the 19th century, as well as one of the first Jewish American artists to establish an international reputation, especially in the academic art circles of the time. |
Role |
Artist |
Places of residence |
Troplowitz, Silesia, Prussia New York, New York Cincinnati, (Hamilton), Ohio Dusseldorf, Germany Paris, France |
