John Fery

John Fery, Johann Fery ( born March 25, 1859 in Straßwalchen, Austria - Hungary, † September 10, 1934 in Everett (Washington), USA), was an American landscape painter of Austrian origin.

Life

Family and origin

John Fery Fery was born as Johann in Straßwalchen (Salzburg). The family was - what the surname suggests - probably originally of Hungarian descent (his father, however, was born in Bohemia), his mother Mary, born Illyes stemmed, at least from the Hungarian part of the country. In censuses in the U.S. Fery gave his origins even as German, even as Hungarian. There is some evidence that Fery his youth, at least in part in Pressburg ( now Bratislava ) spent, which at the time belonged to the Hungarian part of the empire.

Artistic Career

Although Fery variously claimed to have attended art schools in Austria -Hungary and the German Empire, no evidence could be found for it so far and it is arguable that he held no academic art training.

Family and emigration

Probably in the early 1880s married Fery the Swiss Mary Rose Kraemer ( as the name in the U.S. documents - originally possibly Rosa Maria Krämer). 1886, the couple lived on Lake Ammersee in Bavaria, and there was also the first child, daughter Fiammetta born. That same year, the young family emigrated to the United States, and the second child, daughter Lucienne came in 1888 in Ohio to the world.

The exact residence Ferys in his first years in the United States is not known; there is conflicting information on this, and it may be that the family repeatedly changed their place of residence. At the latest in 1890 traveled for the first time Fery the American West, and 1891-1897 he traveled probably twice back to Europe - to advertise presumably wealthy tourists for hunting trips in the United States there. There is evidence that he in 1893 and 1895 European hunters led at least in the years to speed through the American West. An essay on Ferys here appeared in 1894 under the title A hunting in Wyoming.

For the year 1890 Fery is detected in Duluth ( Minnesota), where his youngest child, son Carl was born on March 16. End of the 1890s he held at Jackson Lake in the U.S. state of Wyoming. In 1902 he is shown in Morristown (New Jersey), and from 1903 he lived in Milwaukee and then from 1911 in St. Paul, in the state of Wisconsin. Between about 1918 and 1923, he has been proven in Utah, lived until 1929 then again in Milwaukee and eventually moved in 1929 in the state of Washington, where his wife in 1930 in Seattle and he died in Everett (Washington) 1934.

It is not certain whether Fery ever took U.S. citizenship because, although he stated in this census, so far no relevant documents were found.

Artistic Career

Fery emerged primarily as a landscape painter. Works from the period prior to his emigration to the U.S. is probably not survived (there are only two known images that show European motifs, but are possibly originated in the U.S.). In the U.S., its biggest client was the railway company Great Northern Railway, on whose behalf he designed numerous, often large-scale landscape paintings, which were hung in train stations and elsewhere and it campaigned to tour the American West by rail.

Ferys paintings are characterized by a rather crude Technique, and most of the works were probably completed in a relatively short time. Over 150 of his works can still prove and by many it is known which landscape they represent. More than half of the traditional landscape paintings depict scenes from the Rocky Mountains. In some paintings, there are also depictions of animals. In addition, there are examples of architectural painting.

Ferys works in collections

Works Ferys are, inter alia, to in the following collections:

• The collection of the Burlington Northern Railroad - today at the Minnesota Museum of Art
• The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints Museum on Church History and Art, Salt Lake City