Julius Stockfleth
Julius Stockfleth(January 29, 1857 – 1935) was a Denmark-born painter of landscapes andmarine subjects.His images of the city ofGalveston, Texas,constitute a valuable record of the town between 1885 and 1907, especially its devastation by thehurricane of 1900.
Biography
[edit]Julius Stockfleth was born inWyk auf Föhrin theDuchy of Schleswig,Denmark. He was the son of Louise (Hansen) Stockfleth and Friedrich August Stockfleth, a sailor and ship's carpenter. The area where he lived was taken from Denmark in 1864, and eventually became part of theGerman Empire.After an apprenticeship with a local painter, he emigrated to the United States in 1883, settling in Galveston in 1885.[1]
During the two decades that Stockfleth lived in Galveston, he frequently painted the city's docks, its harbor, and its ships. He found a good market for this work among the ships' crews. The 1900 hurricane killed a dozen members of his extended family, and as a way to cope with the tragedy he undertook a series of paintings that documented the city during the hurricane and its subsequent rebuilding.[1][2]His are the only known contemporary paintings of the Galveston hurricane.[2]Altogether, Stockfleth left some 100 paintings of Texas subjects painted in anaïve realiststyle.[2]
He returned to Germany in 1907, living in Wyk until his death and painting local scenes.[1]
Some of his work is in the collection of theRosenberg Library.[1]
References
[edit]Further reading
[edit]- Martens, Johannes, and Erik M, eds.Julius Stockfleth: Wyker Sketchbook.Boyens, Heide, 2005.
- McGuire, James Patrick.Julius Stockfleth.San Antonio, TX: Trinity University Press, 1976.
- 1857 births
- People from Wyk auf Föhr
- 1935 deaths
- 19th-century German painters
- 19th-century German male artists
- 20th-century German painters
- 20th-century German male artists
- Artists from Texas
- German marine artists
- German landscape painters
- Galveston Hurricane of 1900
- Emigrants from the German Empire to the United States