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for Anthony Henry Wenzler
died 1871
Anthony Henry Wenzler's parents brought him to the United States while he was still a youth. He was raised in New York City, but little is known about his artistic training. In 1838 he exhibited a miniature of a lady at the National Academy's annual exhibition. Although Wenzler was admired as a miniaturist he eventually began painting full-scale portraits and his works were frequently exhibited at the National Academy. Henry T. Tuckerman noted in his Book of Artists:
The oil portraits of this artist have won great admiration for the extreme reality of their details and for their excellent drawing; in tone and hue they have been more experimental, and therefore less satisfactory; there is an extremely literal imitation of local facts almost photographic in its character.
In the late 1850s Wenzler began painting landscapes. As with his portraits they were noted for their "photographic" detail. During the following years he made frequent sketching trips to both the Catskills and the Berkshire Hills and continued to exhibit both portraits and landscapes in the Academy's annual exhibitions. After 1866 he moved to Rhode Island where he spent the remaining years of his life. The eulogy delivered in the Academy's council meeting of June 12 stated:
...we have lost an artist of marked ability, who always proposed to himself pure and lofty aims in Art which he labored honestly and earnestly to realize. ...we sincerely sympathize with the devotion and sacrifice by which he completed his last work, the successful development of his studies and theories in landscape art to which he devoted many years of his life.
The oil portraits of this artist have won great admiration for the extreme reality of their details and for their excellent drawing; in tone and hue they have been more experimental, and therefore less satisfactory; there is an extremely literal imitation of local facts almost photographic in its character.
In the late 1850s Wenzler began painting landscapes. As with his portraits they were noted for their "photographic" detail. During the following years he made frequent sketching trips to both the Catskills and the Berkshire Hills and continued to exhibit both portraits and landscapes in the Academy's annual exhibitions. After 1866 he moved to Rhode Island where he spent the remaining years of his life. The eulogy delivered in the Academy's council meeting of June 12 stated:
...we have lost an artist of marked ability, who always proposed to himself pure and lofty aims in Art which he labored honestly and earnestly to realize. ...we sincerely sympathize with the devotion and sacrifice by which he completed his last work, the successful development of his studies and theories in landscape art to which he devoted many years of his life.
