Frederick Carl Gottwald (American, Cleveland School, 1860 - 1941)

"Taormina, Sicily", ca. 1915. Oil on canvas, signed lower right corner, in gilt wood frame, overall 28" x 24".

Prior labels verso: Christie's labels, sale 8477, December 2000; J. George Myer Artistic Picture Framing, Cleveland, Ohio. Born in Vienna, Austria, in either 1858 or 1860, Frederick Gottwald became an influential Cleveland artist and teacher. He moved to Cleveland as an infant. His first formal instruction resulted from the encouragement of his friend, Otto Bacher, to enlist in the drawing class taught by Archibald M. Willard at the Art Academy in 1875. The next year he helped start the Art Club in Cleveland. He left Cleveland for the Art Students League in New York in 1881 and then Munich in 1882. He also studied at Cooper Union in New York and at the Académie Julian in Paris in the early 1880s.

Gottwald returned to Cleveland by 1885 and began his illustrious career in the local art community. He taught at the Cleveland School of Art until 1926, a career of more than 40 years. His students included noted artists Charles Burchfield, Abel Warshawsky, and Frank Wilcox. Like other art instructors, Gottwald used his summers to travel and paint, primarily to Holland and Italy. Cleveland remained Gottwald's main exhibition focus, although he did exhibit his work in New York, Boston, and Chicago. He helped found the Brush and Palette Club, whose exhibitions ended in 1905, and he also actively served in the Cleveland Society of Artists, which was founded in 1907. Gottwald retired from teaching in 1926, and moved to California in 1932. Source: Massillon Museum

Condition: Craquelure, patch verso, possible inpainting recto, however there is none visible under UV light. Overall good.