Christian Friedrich Mayr

Helene M. Kastinger Riley

As far as is known, the American genre paintings and portraits of Christian Friedrich Mayr were first exhibited at the National Academy of Design in New York City in 1854, two years before he was elected an associate member of the academy. In 1849 he was elected to full membership in the academy and in accordance with the rules he submitted a self-portrait (Pl. I) and offered Reading the New (Pl. III) as a characteristic example of his work. At the time, Mayr lived at 58 Lispenard Street in New York City, where he died two years later. In recording the event, the academy's historian noted laconically:

Died, Christian Mayer, Academician - a foreign artist. His works are but little known. He was a man of merit, but not of marked ability. As an American artist by education, he probably would not have commanded election into the body of Academicians.(1)

The commentary betrays a certain disdain for Mayr's European education in the classical tradition.

Until recently, little was known of Mayr's family and upbringing, and not many of his works had been located. He was born on October 19, 1803, in Nuremberg, Germany, where his father, Johann Daniel von Mayer (1778-1810) was an artist, engraver, and entrepreneur, and himself the son of an art dealer. Johann von Mayer married Maria Sophia Hensel, the daughter of a surgeon, shortly after she gave birth to Christian Mayr.(2) At the time Johann von Mayer was in business preparing Japan lacquer and pictures for snuffboxes and ornaments with the help of his friend and employee Christian Friedrich Fues (1772-1836), an artist and engraver who lived on his premises.(3) Fues was Christian Mayr's godfather, and, when Johann von Mayer died, he took over the education of Christian and his younger brother Heinrich.(4) In 1813 Fues married his friend's widow.

Fues's excellent training provided him with a comfortable income and a professorship at the Royal Art Academy in Nuremberg. The city hall commissioned nine portraits from him to honor outstanding citizens, and he created altarpieces, landscapes, and genre paintings as well.(5) Fues was a practical man and taught his stepsons their craft in the traditional classical maimer when Philipp Otto Runge (1777-1810) was introducing his romantic allegories and Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840) was raising the symbolism of the romantic school of painting to its highest level.

In September 1819 Christian Mayr entered the Royal Art Academy in Nuremberg, where his report card commented "aptitude, assiduity, and moral behavior: ordinary."(6) In October 1821 he exhibited a classical head, three drawings after Anthony Van Dyck (1599-1641) and some of the classical busts at the academy, and by the next term his report card showed an improvement to "good."(7) For some time he worked as a lithographer and architectural painter,(8) and in July 1823 he traveled to Munich to study at the acclaimed Royal Academy of Fine Arts there, specializing in the depiction of architectural monuments.(9)

Nothing further is known of Christian Mayr until he exhibited at the National Academy of Design in New York City in 1834. Of his six paintings on view there, five appear to have been portraits, the mainstay of his income in the United States.

Brooklyn Fire Engine Company No. 1 [ILLUSTRATION FOR FIGURE 1 OMITTED] reflects not only Mayr's training in architectural illustration and the graphic arts, but a European's perception about the United States. The prominent flag on the left seems to rise through the awning of a storefront, symbolizing the rapid mercantile and industrial growth of Brooklyn following the American Revolution.(10) The small flag on the firehouse on the right provides a visual complement and incorporates the past into the present. Fire Station One houses the "Waschington [sic] Company," as spelled out on the scroll above the door, commemorating George Washingtons defensive stand during the Battle of Long Island in 1776. The battle was fought on the very ground the painting depicts, the north side of Prospect Street near Main Street. The fireman Thomas H. Redding (left), talking to Peter B. Anderson, appears to be wearing a Purple Heart, the oldest American decoration for military merit, which was inaugurated by Washington in 1782.(11) In front of the firehouse door is a street lamp, symbolizing not only safety but also the spirit of enlightenment. In short, the painting is full of the symbolism also found in German romantic painting of Mayr's time. The intricately ornamented fire engine is as carefully painted as one of the pieces of lacquerware from the Mayr family business in Germany.

After traveling for some time in the northeast Mayr shifted his attention to the south, working for several years in Charleston, South Carolina, where, in 1838, he became a United States citizen.(12) Charleston had a large German-American population receptive to Mayr's work. In 1840 he lived and had his gallery above the apothecary of Dr. DelaMotta at the corner of King and Broad Streets.(13) The following year he moved to King and Hasell Streets, above Jonathan Bryan's store.(14) In 1841 he advertised as a daguerreotypist and portrait painter, conducted a class "for instruction of Ladies in drawing and oil painting,"(15) and sold many paintings at his studio and through raffles.(16)

Mayr's skill at portraiture and attention to detail appealed to the socially prominent families of Charleston. Therefore, the legacy of his stay is to a large extent a record of the city's foremost citizens in historical settings. In 1841, he painted a portrait of the Charleston volunteer fire department (Pl. V).(17) His likenesses of Brigadier General John Schnierle (private collection) and the latter's brother-in-law, Brigade Major John Siegling (Pl. II), are strikingly similar compositions. Both men wear their dress uniforms and both are shown with their horses. Schnierle's horse is held by a slave, while Siegling holds his own horse in the Charleston Citadel. In 1842 the Citadel was converted into a military school,(18) and the presence of a cadet approaching Siegling implies that the portrait was painted after that time. Both paintings have as their historical background an "intended insurrection" by the slave population of Charleston that was discovered in 1822.(19) As a result, a "competent force, to act as a municipal guard for the protection of the City of Charleston and its vicinity" was established in 1822 with "revenue to be derived from a tax on free negroes and their houses."(20) A decade later $200,000 was appropriated for arms, ammunition, and "for the support of the Citadel and Magazine guard."(21)

Mayr's portrait of Jacob F. Mintzing (Pl. IV), one of several German-born mayors of Charleston, also has a historical connection. In the background is the splendid meeting hall of the German Friendly Society of which Mintzing was president from 1818 to 1819 and again from 1833 to 1841. This is the only known contemporary depiction of the hall, which was constructed by the master builders John Horlbeck Jr. (1771-1846) and his brother Henry (1776-1837) in 1801 and destroyed by fire in 1864.

The Charleston Courier announced on November 16, 1843, that Mayr was to leave for Havana. In January 1844 he advertised an exhibition of more than forty paintings in New Orleans, at the corner of Magazine and Grader Streets.(22) By 1845 he was back in New York City.

Many of Mayr's genre paintings afford an intimate glimpse of life in the United States. On a visit to White Sulphur Springs, in what is now West Virginia, he painted Kitchen Ball (Pl. VI), depicting a black wedding party celebrated by house servants in the kitchen.(23) As a European with an outsider's point of view, Mayr captured the condition of the black servants while at the same time giving them a dignified middle-class demeanor. The nuances of character, physical appearance, and dress evident in this painting distinguish it from the paternalistic portrayals of blacks common among American painters at the time.

In Reading the News (Pl. III), which Mayr submitted to the National Academy in 1849, he focuses on small-town America and its thirst for knowledge of the outside world. Even the attentive dog seems fascinated by what is being discussed.

Among Mayr's paintings that emphasize the humorous aspect of life, Curiosity (Pl. VIII) shows three elegantly dressed young women eavesdropping on the owner of the hat and gloves. He is in the next room, perhaps a suitor of one of them. It's Too Tight (Pl. IX) captures a young man trying to squeeze into a tight-fitting boot. His landlady has been attracted by the noise of the chair falling over, and a servant stands by with an amused smile. In both paintings Mayr has carefully recorded furnishings as well as carpet and wallpaper patterns.

A number of Mayr's paintings, known now only from descriptions in exhibition records and newspaper notices, depicted the relations between Indians and the early European settlers. Among the titles are Captain Smith in Virginia, which is probably the same as Capt. Smiths visit to Powhattan of about 1837 in which Smith was described as surrounded by curious dancing Indians, among whom is Pocahontas.(24) Conquest of Peru, exhibited at the National Academy in New York City in 1849, is described as depicting "King Atahualpa Filling a Room with Gold To Purchase his Freedom from Pizzaro."(25) Still other titles are The Chieftains Wife, exhibited at the National Academy in 1836, and The Ransom of Montezuma, exhibited in Baltimore in 1850.(26)

The location of many of Mayr's paintings, like these history paintings, is unknown, which is in part why few critics have discussed his work in detail.(27) Yet his keen eye for social subtleties offers a refreshing look at the United States in many of its facets, including pride in historical achievements. He deserves more attention than he has received.

1 Thomas Seir Cummings, Historic Annals of the National Academy of Design...from 1825 to the Present Time (Philadelphia, 1865), p. 229.

2 For extensive information about the family I am grateful to the Archivoberninspektorin Annemarie Muller of the Landeskirchliches Archiv in Nuremberg, who also sent me copies of pertinent entries in the records of the Evangelical Lutheran Parish Nurnberg-Sankt Lorenz.

3 Michael Bryan, Bryan's Dictionary of Painters and Engravers, ed. George C. Williamson (Macmillan, New York, 1903), vol. 2, p. 201.

4 Heinrich von Mayr was born on February 22, 1806. Like his brother Christian he studied at the Royal Art Academy in Nuremberg and at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Munich. He remained in Europe, where he became a successful painter. In 1838 he published Malerische Ansichten aus dem Oriente (Picturesque Views of the Orient), and in 1845 he published Genre-Bilder (Genre Paintings), He notes among the subscribers to the second book "christian von Mayr in Newyork" and a "von Mayer, Banquier." Heinrich died in Munich on April 5, 1871.

5 Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Kunstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, ed. Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker, vol. 12 (Seemann, Leipzig, 1916), p. 565.

6 Student register for the summer term of 1821. For this information I am grateful to Archivoberrattin Schmidt-Folkersamb at the Nuremberg State Archives.

7 Ibid., winter term 1821-1822.

8 Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Kunstler, vol. 24 (Seemann, Leipzig, 1930), p. 466.

9 Georg K. Nagler, Neues allgemeines Kunstler-Lexikon, vol. 9 (Manz, Vienna, 1924), p. 524.

10 First settled in 1636, Brooklyn was incorporated as a city in 1834.

11 The decoration was originally called the "Badge for Military Merit" and consisted of a heart-shaped piece of purple silk with a narrow binding of silver braid. The word "merit" was stitched across the heart in silver. The Purple Heart in its modern version was instituted in 1932.

12 Brent H. Holcomb, South Carolina Naturalizations 1783-1850 (Genealogical Publishing, Baltimore, 1985), p. 24.

13 Charleston Courier, February 20, 1840.

14 Ibid., February 13, 1841.

15 Ibid., February 25 and September 27, 1841.

16 Ibid., August 25, 1841. Other raffle dates were also set by him after a sufficient number of tickets had been sold.

17 The painting was completed and raffled in 1841. The winning ticket was held by the son of R. Wainwright Bacot, the president of the Phoenix Fire Company. The painting was later presented to the Charleston City Council.

18 John Peyre Thomas, The History of the South Carolina Military Academy (Charleston, 1893), pp. 27-34.

19 The attempted uprising was led by the free black Denmark (Telemaque) Vesey (c. 1767-1822) and sympathizers. Starting at midnight on Sunday, June 16, 1822, the slaves intended to capture the city's arsenal and guardhouse and then slaughter all whites indiscriminately. The plan was betrayed and thirty-five of the conspirators, including Vesey, were executed (ibid., pp. 13-17).

20 Ibid., p. 12.

21 Ibid., p. 20.

22 New Orleans Commercial Bulletin, January 24, 1844.

23 The painting is discussed in Elizabeth Johns, American Genre Painting: The Politics of Everyday Life (Yale University Press, New Haven, 1991), p. 114; and R. Lewis Wright, Artists in Virginia before 1900: An Annotated Checklist (University Press of Virginia for the Virginia Historical Society, Charlottesville, 1983), p. 107.

24 Charleston Courier, April 10, 1840.

25 Christian F. Mayr listing, Inventory of American Paintings Executed before 1914, National Museum of American Art, Washington, D.C. See also National Academy of Design Exhibition Record, 1826-1860, comp. Bartlett Cowdrey (New-York Historical Society, New York, 1943), vol. 2, p. 22.

26 National Academy of Design Exhibition Record, 1826-1860, vol. 2, p. 21; The National Museum of American Art's Index to American Art Exhibition Catalogues From the Beginning through the 1876 Centennial Year, comp. James L. Yarnall and William H. Gerdts with Katharine Fox Stewart and Catherine Hoover Voorsanger (G. K. Hall, Boston, 1986), vol. 4, p. 2343. The painting is listed as for sale by its owner, S. Cariss.

27 The latest discussion of Mayr, listing earlier writings about him and containing a catalogue of his works, is in Katharina Bott, Deutsche Kunstler in Amerika, 1813-1913 (Verlag und Datenbank fur Geisteswissenschaften, Weimar, 1996), pp. 163-166. See also Anna Wells Rutledge, Artists in the Life of Charleston: Through Colony and State from Restoration to Reconstruction (American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, 1949), pp. 163-164, 237, 240, 242-245; Teresa A. Carbone, At Home with Art: Paintings in American Interiors, 1780-1920 (Katonah Museum of Art, Katonah, New York, 1995), pp. 14-15, Fig. 8; and National Academy of Design: Exhibition Record 1826-1860, vol. 2, pp. 21-23.

HELENE M. KASTINGER RILEY, the Alumni Distinguished Professor of German at Clemson University in Clemson, South Carolina, writes about subjects related to German-American culture.

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