John Lewis Krimmel | |
|---|---|
 Self-Portrait with Susanna Krimmel and her Children by John Lewis Krimmel | |
| Born | Johann Ludwig Krimmel (1786-05-30)May 30, 1786 Württemberg, Germany |
| Died | July 15, 1821(1821-07-15) (aged 35) Germantown, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Nationality | American |
| Known for | Painting |
| Movement | Genre painting |
John Lewis Krimmel (May 30, 1786 – July 15, 1821), sometimes called "the American Hogarth," wasAmerica's first painter ofgenre scenes. Born in theHoly Roman Empire, he immigrated toPhiladelphia in 1809 and soon became a member of thePennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Initially influenced by Scotland'sDavid Wilkie, England'sWilliam Hogarth, and America'sBenjamin West, he soon turned to direct observation of life for his genre scenes.
Krimmel was among the first artists in America to portray free Blacks, such as inBlack People's Prayer Meeting (1813). Paintings such asFourth of July Celebration in Centre Square (1811/12) andElection Day (1815) are filled with lively characterizations of scores of crowd members. American artists influenced by Krimmel's work includeWilliam Sidney Mount,George Caleb Bingham, andThomas Eakins.
Krimmel was born on May 30, 1786, in the small town ofEbingen inDuchy of Württemberg in Germany.
In 1809, Johann Ludwig decided to join his older brother, who had immigrated toPhiladelphia. He initially planned to engage in business with his brother, but soon abandoned this occupation for art. Though he may have had some watercolor lessons inLondon, Johann Ludwig had no real formal training in art when he reached Philadelphia about November 1, 1809. The 1812 city directory listed Krimmel, who Anglicized his name to John Lewis, as a painter. He began painting portraits. But a copy ofDavid Wilkie'sBlind Fiddler persuaded him to turn to humorous subjects. He also painted historical pictures.
Krimmel arrived inPhiladelphia, then the intellectual and cultural center of the United States. In Philadelphia, Krimmel soon joined the first known sketch club in America whose members includedThomas Sully andRembrandt Peale. His first painting to excite public notice wasPepper-Pot: A Scene in the Philadelphia Market (1811). The oil depicted a black woman ladling out bowls of her uniquely Philadelphian spicy soup to white customers of various ages and social classes. This genre scene or depiction of contemporary everyday life was soon followed by many more in his sketchbooks and canvases likeBlind Man's Buff (1814) andCountry Wedding (1814). In all of his known oils, Krimmel included at least one animal (usually a frisky dog), sometimes two or three.
Pavel Svinyin, a Russian on a diplomatic mission to Philadelphia between 1811 and 1813, apparently purchased roughly 14 sketches from Krimmel and presented them back inRussia along with works from a variety of sources as typical American scenes which he had painted himself. The works in the so-called Svinin Portfolio includeBlack People's Prayer Meeting,Deck Life on One of Fulton's Steamboats, andMorning in Front of Arch Street Meeting House, which showed Quakers in their Sunday best. The Svinin Portfolio is now in theMetropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Formerly thought to be Svinin's own work, the watercolors are now generally attributed to Krimmel.
Krimmel's works are often reproduced in schoolbooks, historical works and magazines.Election Day in Philadelphia, perhaps his most famous painting, painted in 1815, illustrates his ability to individualize crowd members with humorous observations.Fourth of July Celebration in Centre Square, Philadelphia, 1819 brims with patriotism and a spirit of unity in a neoclassical design. InQuilting Frolic, guests accompanied by a Black fiddler burst in to celebrate the finishing of a quilt before the needlework and clean-up of the room are quite finished. Art historianGuy McElroy has identified this work as one of the first "to utilize physiognomical distortions [wide toothy grins and over-sized lips] as a basic element in the depiction of African Americans..."[1] Krimmel's depiction of a mother and daughter trying to persuade the drunken father to come home madeVillage Tavern the first American painting to illustrate the social ills addressed by thetemperance movement.[2]
Krimmel recorded ideas for his pictures in a series of sketchbooks he kept between 1810 and 1821. From late 1816 to 1818, he travelled back to his home region as well as toVienna andSalzburg, and his sketchbooks are filled with sketches of European landscapes, people, animals, and flowers. His encounters with local artists influenced his style to become more maturely romantic. Some of Krimmel's now lost paintings are known from detailed sketches, such asThe Tea Party. Seven of Krimmel's sketchbooks are now in the library at theWinterthur Museum, Garden and Library. They contain approximately 700 separate drawings, ranging from quick pencil sketches to finished watercolor pictures, which have been useful in authenticating unsigned paintings of Krimmel that surface from time to time.
Two sketches in his second sketchbook capture a typicalMoravian Christmas home celebration and represent what are probably the earliest depictions of aChristmas tree in American art.[3]
On July 15, 1821, Krimmel went swimming nearGermantown in a millpond anddrowned.[4] He was engaged to be married at the time of his death.
Although Krimmel had been a painter only eleven years, his star was on the rise. He had recently been elected President of Association of American Artists. He had also received a prestigious commission for a large historical work, a 6x9-foot canvas commemorating the landing ofWilliam Penn atNew Castle, Delaware in October 1682. While Krimmel's genre scenes found few buyers during his lifetime, engravings of his work made long after his death were widely circulated as prints and magazine illustrations.
He is recognized as the most significant American painter to consistently chronicle American life from 1810 to 1821.[by whom?]
In the 2010s and 2020s, a cropped version of "The Village Politicians" became a popular Internet meme.[5]
Krimmel watercolor paintings on display at theMetropolitan Museum of Art inNew York City:
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