biografía de Rudolf SCHEFFLER (1884-1973)

Lugar de nacimiento: Zwickau, Germany

Lugar de defunción: Valley Cottage, NY

Direcciones: Brooklyn Heights/Old Lyme, CT (1924-42); Valley Cottage (Rockland Cnty), NY/ Old Lyme, CT (1942-73)

Profesión: Painter, craftsman, muralist

Estudios: Royal Acad., Dresden, with Otto Gussman; Carl Bantzer & Hermann Prel, 1902-12 (silver medal, 1912; Grand Prix de Rome, 1913); privately in Paris, 1908; travel to study in Florence & Venice, Italy, 1909; Holland, 1913.

Exposiciones: Salons of Am., 1924-36; PAFA Ann., 1925, 1929; "Paintings by Brooklyn and Long Island Artists," BM, 1930; S. Indp. A., 1931; Griswold Mus., Old Lyme, CT, 1989 (retrospective)

Asociaciones: "Rider on the Sea" group, Baltic coast, Germany, 1910-11; Brooklyn Soc. Mod. Artists; Mural Painters; NSMP.

Obra: Griswold Mus., Old Lyme, CT; Springfield (IL) Hospital; murals and mosaics, State Office Bldg., Columbus, OH; mosaic, Cathedral of Saint Louis, MO; mosaic, Seminary of St. Francis, Milwaukee, WI; triptych for Bishop of Houston, TX; mosaic reredos for St. Augustine church in Minster, OH. Historical murals, Liederkranz Bldg., NYC; WPA mural, USPO, Maumee, OH; Windsor Castle, England; Lord Jenkins Castle, New South Wales; other mosaics and murals for churches in NY, CT, WA, MT, WI, IL, LA, CA, KY, OH, and throughout Germany and Europe.

Comentarios: A member of the Old Lyme (CT) colony of artists, Scheffler was a post-impressionist whose paintings of the flowering gardens at his Lyme summer home remained private because did not exhibit after 1931. He also painted landscapes, figures, and still lifes, and spent many summers on Monhegan Island with his friend and fellow German immigrant, Emil Holzhauer. In Scheffler"s student years at the Royal Academy of Art at Dresden, he formed a lasting friendship with Max Pechstein. In the early 1920s, Scheffler returned to teach at the Royal Academy, and was a highly sought-after portraitist in high society Dresden. In 1921, he bought a windmill in Weick, a village on the Baltic Sea near Denmark, and painted its interior in the ancient Nordic folk style, and carved its furniture ó this windmill later became a national historic site. When Scheffler came to the U.S. in 1924, he was already recognized as a leading architectural artisan. He was the principal designer for the Puhl & Wagner Workshop of Berlin, and was especially known for his mosaics and stained glass. He lived in sculptor Robert Laurent"s artists' building in Brooklyn Heights, and by the late 1920s was summering in Old Lyme. He produced a major mosaic for the Cathedral of Saint Louis (St. Louis, MO) and a magnificent mosaic dome for the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Waterbury, Conn. His most ambitious mural project was a large series for the State Office Bldg. in Columbus, Ohio.

Fuentes: WW59; WW47; Peter Falk, Rudolf Scheffler (exh. cat., Sound View Press, for Florence Griswold Museum, 1989); Falk, Exhibition Record Series; Curtis, Curtis, and Lieberman, 152, 186; Art in Conn.: Between World Wars.