Frederick August Wenderoth

Frederick August Wenderoth (* 1819 in Cassel, Germany, † 1884 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA) was a German-born photographer, painter, lithographer, engraver, who emigrated with Charles Christian Nahl and his younger half-brother Hugo Wilhelm Arthur Nahl via Paris to America and there portrait, animal, landscape and genre painting was known in the art areas.

Life

August turning Roth's first art teacher was his father, the painter Carl Wenderoth. August then studied at the Art Academy Cassel and met Carl Christian Nahl, with whom he remained a lifelong friendship. Already at the age of 18 he gave the ladies ( to their extended circle the mother turning Roth counted ) at the court of the Landgrave of Hesse -Kassel art classes. In 1845 he left Germany because of the revolution unrest and settled in Paris. In 1846 he traveled to Algeria, probably together with the famous French painter Horace Vernet. Back in Paris he met Nahl, who had also emigrated with his family from Cassel to Paris. Despite the uncertain political situation, the young artists visited many art museums and in particular the Louvre, studying the works of the great masters. The emerging also in the new homeland political struggles led Wenderoth in May / June 1849 to leave together with the Nahls Paris and emigrated to the United States. They stayed at first in Brooklin, New York, where Wenderoth lived with the artist Louis Nagel. After successful exhibitions at the American Art Union in 1849 and in 1850 he was able to sell several paintings and to fund further trips.

1851 were infected by gold fever in California Wenderoth and Nahls. They traveled in March by ship via Havana (Cuba ) to Chagres (Panama), crossed the fever- infested Isthmus of Panama on foot and by boat across the Rio Chagres and finally reached in a further voyage in May of San Francisco. They turned directly to the gold fields at Yuba River to bought by a German from a claim and tried their luck. This turned out not to the expected extent, but brought the group to the environment of the gold rush in closest contact, what should be important for the later successful artistic career. So Wenderoth soon began to draw the miners and to include them in Daguerretechnik.

Towards the end he moved to Sacramento Nahl, there to open a joint studio. They produced paintings, woodcuts and lithographs of mining scenes and portraits. When in 1852 the Great Fire destroyed Sacramento, the Nahls moved their company to San Francisco.

Wenderoth undertook 1852-1853 a trip to the South Pacific and Australia. In 1856 he married Laura Nahl, the half- sister of his friend and companion Charles Christian Nahl and moved to Philadelphia ( Pennsylvania) with her. His young wife died but already in the following year with her first child at its birth. From Wenderoth is known at this time a not exactly dated activity in St. Louis; In 1857 he was in Charleston, South Carolina and stayed from 1858 in Philadelphia. Despite the setbacks, he established himself as a successful Daguerretypist, painter and illustrator for Harper 's Weekly newspaper. He died in 1884 in Philadelphia tuberculosis.

Works

The large-scale oil painting " Miners in the Sierrra " from 1851 is perhaps the finest example of joint work with Charles Christian Nahl dar. Two lithographs Nahl and Wenderoth from the prospectors milieu were "A miner prospecting " and "Miner 's cabin. Result of the Day ", both from 1852.