The son of a German state official, William (or Wilhelm) Ritschel first studied art at the Munich Royal Academy under F. A. Kaulbach and *** Raupp. He is said to have spent his early years as a sailor, an occupation which no doubt influenced his interest in marine painting. Before moving to the United States, Ritschel worked in Holland and the fjords of Norway. He married Gabriele von Hornstein in 1892 in Europe.
In New York in 1895, Ritschel painted seacapes and landscapes in his studio in the Holbein Building. During the Spanish-American War, he was sent to Havana by Collier's Weekly to execute a series of illustrations. Ritschel worked in various coastal resorts, including Provincetown, Monhegan Island, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, around the turn of the century. Ritschel remarried Zora Hollingsworth in 1900.
Ritschel moved to Katwijk aan Zee, a small fishing village on the Dutch coast of the North Sea sometime in the second decade of the twentieth century. He remained there for seven years, sketching and studying the area for his marines. After his return to New York, Ritschel toured the American Southwest, visiting the Grand Canyon, spending time on the California coast. He settled in Carmel, California in 1919, establishing his reputation as a painter of the rocky shoreline and Pacfic Ocean. Ritschel travelled frequently after this time in search of locations for his work, he visited Tahiti twice in the early 1920s, and in 1925 began a year long trip around the world.
