Tales from a Scenic Artist and Scholar. Part 279 – A Snapshot of the Milwaukee Panorama Artists 

14 thoughts on “Tales from a Scenic Artist and Scholar. Part 279 – A Snapshot of the Milwaukee Panorama Artists ”

1. Joseph Pierre Birren panorama diary
   May 16,1882
   First began art study with C.C.Minor at 70 Monroe Street, Chicago//JPB was an panorama artist for Reed & Gross of Chicago/Englewood 1885-88, and went to Australia with Reed & Gross to set up and maintain 1 rotunda in Adelaide,1 rotunda in Sydney and 2 rotundas in Melbourne. I have been in contact with his granddaughter; I have a xerox copy of his round-the-world diary

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2. Paul Wilhelmi originally painted panoramas for Heine and Lohr, but he subsequently went to Chicago to paint panoramas for Reed & Gross of Chicago/Englewood. Wilhelmi went to Australia with the Reed & Gross studio where they erected and maintained rotunda panoramas; Sydney had 1 rotunda, Adelaide had 2 rotunda and Melbourne had 2 rotundas

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3. Michaelowski removed to Chicago and resided at the Lambert Tree Studios in the 1890s. He knew Ellen Houser Rankin Copp (1853-1901) who sculpted the statue of Pele for the KILAUEA VOLCANO PANORAMA exhibit at World’s Columbian Exposition, who also resided at Tree Studio. Michaelowski died of TB and his widow returned his ashes to Berlin[]see CHICAGO TRIBUNE February 29,1896 p.6 Artists Give A Big Reception /Tree Studio Building Thronged with Friends of the Occupants (Michaelowski and Copp listed)[] see CHICAGO TRIBUNE February 23,1896 p.27 Where Art Is Queen Of All /Some Phases of the Bohemian Happiness in the Tree Studio Building[illustration: INTERIOR OF MICHAELOWSKI’S STUDIO]

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4. Theodore Russell Davis (1841-1894), campaign artist for HARPER’S WEEKLY during the Civil War, designer of the White House porcelain service for President Hayes administration, and artist who led the Heine & Lohr crew on their panorama trip to Chattanooga and Atlanta. The contribution of TRD cannot be underestimated. In effect he was the nationally known publicity agent for the Wehner/ Heine & Lohr studio. His article in ST NICHOLAS December 188 “How A Great Battle Panorama Is Made,” is the most quoted how-to article about 19th century rotunda panorama ever written, found in newspapers coast-to-coast, and too in Australia. See: ST NICHOLAS July 1889 “How a Battle is Sketched.” See COSMOPOLITAN June 1892 General Sheridan’s Personality (documenting an incident Sunday August 15,1886 at Panorama Place, Chicago when Sherman and TRD visited BATTLE OF MISSIONARY RIDGE & LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN panorama by Wehner/Heine & Lohr); see COSMOPOLITAN January 1893 Grant Under Fire;see COSMOPOLITAN December 1891 With Sherman In His Army Home;see THE ART AMATEUR 1894, Notes From An Ocean Studio; see THE LADIES’ HOME JOURNAL December 1889 Presidential Entertainments in the White House;see THE ART AMATEUR December 1880 The White House Porcelain Service; see UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE for TRD designs on the porcelain service. William Wehner was in the high-end glass-and-porcelain business in Chicago. TRD had a 5 year “window” in his contract to receive royalties for his china service patents. When TRD worked for Wehner, Wehner would place a battle panorama ad in the newspapers, and on the same page there would be an ad in a high-end glass-and-porcelain establishment announcing the ROAD SHOW of the White House Porcelain Service by TRD. WHAT IS REALLY INTERESTING is that in recent years THE ANTIQUES ROAD SHOW once was held in Milwaukee, and a relative of Wehner had received a trunk from an Old Aunt ,Wehner’s daughter Ida (1873-1975) that contained some of the TRD White House Porcelain. The relative pretended she did not known anything about the porcelain. David Lackey interviewed her. Wehner’s wife was nee Elisabeth Stuetze of Milwaukee
   and her father was Gustav Adolph Stuetze. I have much more info to share

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5. THE WHITE HOUSE PORCELAIN SERVICE: Designs By An American Artist [Theodore Russell Davis], Illustrating Exclusively American Fauna and Flora (1879 Haviland & Co)
   [] see OFFICIAL WHITE HOUSE CHINA 1789 TO THE PRESENT by Margaret Brown Klapthor (1999)

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6. EXCELLENT information! Thank you for sharing, Gene Meier.

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7. DEUTSCHAMERIKA by Mathilde Georgine Schley (Milwaukee: 1935)
   [p.17] Die sogenannten Panoramamaler machten sich heimlich und um sie scharten sich Bewunderer und Schueler, und eifrig studierte man in den wie Pilze emporschliessenden Ateliers und Kunstschulen. Das Kunstwesen stand in voller Bluete,nicht nur in Milwaukee, wo man sich noch an die wohlbekannten Namen und deren Lebranstalten erinnert, sondern auch in Chicago, Cleveland, Buffalo und St. Louis war sie taetig.
   [p.64] Dann kamen die Panoramamaler und waren in Milwaukee, Chicago, Buffalo,Cleveland und St. Louis taetig. Ein gewisser Wehner von Chicago wurde beauftragt, geeignete Kuenstler nach Amerika zu bringen. Das war in den achtziger Jahren und die Kuenstler hiessen Franz Rohrbeck und Hermann Michalowski von Berlin, Otto von Ernst, A.Lohr, F.W.Heine,F.Bieberstein, Richard Lorenz, Robert Schade und der heute noch fleiszige Museumsmaler Georg Peter.[]Mathilde Georgine Schley (1864-1941), is my great aunt. Tante Tilde studied with panoramist Richard Lorenz and Otto von Ernst. She appears in 10 photographs by panoramist Berhnhard Schneider (1843-1907) that were found in Cedarburg by Sue Birnschein and Christine Lajoice. Dated February 1888, according to the F.W.Heine diaries, the young people, dressed as peasants, pose before a unit of JERUSALEM ON THE DAY OF THE CRUCIFIXION, one of three made in the Wehner/Heine & Lohr studio in downtown Milwaukee. Tilde is the girl with the strap across her chest. This particular unit of JERUSALEM would be removed to Buffalo, and later London where it would be confiscated because of international copyright difficulties per panoramist Bruno Piglhein–a long story

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8. A STORY OF THE CHICAGO FIRE by Rev. David Swing//Copyright 1892 Howard H.Gross
   Roster of panorama artists: Salvador Mege (Paris), Edward James Austen (London), Oliver Dennett Grover (Chicago), Paul Wilhelmi (Milwaukee, Chicago),William Leftwich Dodge, Ernst Albert, Richard Lorenz (Milwaukee), Edgar S. Cameron, A.Fleury (Paris), C.H.Collins (Iowa, Illinois)

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9. EXHIBITION CATALOG: Panorama, Battles of CHATTANOOGA, Cleveland Panorama Co., Cleveland, Ohio// The magnificent battle panorama of the Storming of Mission Ridge is the THIRD great canvas painted under the supervision of William Wehner,by the corps of artists which has made his studio on Wells street, Milwaukee, prominent throughout Europe and America. Mr. Wehner’s staff comprises twenty artists,each noted in his profession for ability in the branch of art which he makes his specialty. The chief artists, Professors August Lohr of Munich, and F.W.Heine, of Dresden, are well known and of high reputation, the former for his grand landscapes, the latter as a military painter of noted ability.Prominent among their assistants are Franz Biberstein, Wilhelm Schroter,Bernard Schneider,landscape painters; Th. Breidwiser, Herman Michalowsi, Franz Rohrbeck, Robert Schade and George Peter, figure painters; Johannes Schultz and Theo von Lurzer, arms and equipments,and Richard Lorenz, who confines his brush exclusively to animal painting.The studies for this panorama were made with painstaking care,and involved considerable outlay. A substantial lookout, or tower, was erected directly upon the spot from which General Grant directed the battle. here the artists sojourned for weeks,painting elaborate pictures depicting the landscape in every direction. Theodore Russell Davis, well known as the artist and correspondent of HARPER’S, throughout the war, was present with the sketch and notebooks used by him during the actual conflict, twenty years before. Ex-officers o both armies evinced a most cordial interest,and extended every possible assistance…THE MANAGER, Cleveland, Ohio, November 1,1886

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10. EXHIBITION CATALOG: Panorama, Battle of ATLANTA, Detroit// The American Panorama Company’s MISSIONARY RIDGE, on exhibition in Chicago,was the initial painting from my panorama studio. The corps of artists who painted it,strengthened by the addition of a number of appreciated European artists, have executed the admirable panorama of ATLANTA. A thorough inspection of the best panoramas as painted for exhibition in Europe led me to select Prof August Lohr, of Munich, and F.W.Heine, of Dresden, to take charge of my panorama studio in Milwaukee. By birth an Austrian, in art a “Munich man,”he posses power and breadth of color, while in the tender treatment of sky and stance there is a reflex of his thoughtful mind. Prof Lohr painted the landscape of the panorama of the Battles of Weissenberg, St. Privat, Mars La Tour,and Sedan, which rank as the most excellent in Europe. In every way his equal is his co-worker and life-time friend, Prof F.W.Heine, the battle painter,upon whom the important work of composition and the labor attending the same devolves. These gentlemen work in concert,although each is independent of the other. Prof Heine,born at Leipzig,was educated at the academies of Leipzig and Weimar, in the campaign with the Prussian army in the Austrian war of 1866, attracting attention for both his personal courage and artistic ability. Throughout the Franco-Prussian war Prof.Heine braved danger to be present with his sketch book, witnessing the siege of Paris and the coronation of the Emperor at Versailles. His TRIUMPHAL ENTRY OF KING ALBERT INTO DRESDEN AT THE HEAD OF HIS TROOPS, a colossal painting, adorns the council chamber of the city hall of his native city. For the Duke of Brunswick he painted four mammoth battle pieces,representing heroic deeds of Brunswick artillery, infantry and cavalry, in the war with France. THE ARTISTS OF THE STAFF are: Bernhard Schneider, Wilhelm Schroeter and Franz Biberstein, landscape painters; Herr Zuckotinsky,Th Breidwiser,Franz Rohrbeck, Herman Michalowski and Johannes Schultz, figure painters; Richard Lorenz and George Peter, animal painters….For the historical facts in the panorama of ATLANTA I have had,as in MISSIONARY RIDGE, the advantage of the sketch and note books, as well as photographs and knowledge of my friend, Mr. Theodore Russell Davis,who is known to all veterans of the war as the campaign artist of HARPER’S WEEKLY…William Wehner, Milwaukee Studio, February 15,1887

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11. EXHIBITION CATALOG: Panorama, JERUSALEM ON THE DAY OF THE CRUCIFIXION, Edward St. Music Hall Grounds, Buffalo, New York// Mr. William Wehner, the owner of the Milwaukee panorama studio, knew Karl Frosch, who was in charge of the Jerusalem expedition, and hardly waited for his return from Palestine before opening negotiations for all the material, together with the services of Mr. Frosch himself, for a cyclorama of Jerusalem to be painted in this country. Success finally crowned his efforts, and Mr. Frosch came over,bringing all the valuables gathered with him, for the purpose of submitting on canvas the holy city as it appeared on the day of the Crucifixion. In company with F.W.Heine and August Lohr, the composition was made and the great work executed by such prominent Munich artists as Franz Biberstein, Thaddeus von Zukotinsky, Bernhard Schneider, Franz Rohrbeck, Herman Michalowski, Georg Peter and others.

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12. SAN FRANCISCO CALL April 16,1899 History and Art Beautiful in combination/Realistic Panorama of BATTLE OF MANILA [BAY]/ Perfect in Detail[] An entertainment of historic and artistic interest was opened by the INTERSTATE PANORAMA COMPANY for the people of San Francisco yesterday in the PANORAMA OF MANILA BAY at Central Park…For the purpose of preparing the panorama PIERRE N.BOERINGER went as special artist and commissioner to Manila,made a number of elaborate water colors of the landscape and took a series of photographs covering the whole sweep around the bay.From these views and sketches the panorama was painted mainly by AUGUST LOHR and FRANZ BIBERSTEIN of Munich, F.W.HEINE of Dresden and GEORGE PETER of Vienna.These artists are among the most eminent in their profession and have already won high repute for similar work in the artistic capitals of Europe. Much of the success of the marine portion of the panorama is due to W.A.COULTER,the well known marine artist of THE CALL,who gave valuable advice in the accomplishment of some of the technical difficulties of the drawing of ships,and to the officers of the UNION IRON WORKS, who, being builders of the OLYMPIA, assisted by furnishing plans of that model ship…

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13. I live in St. Francis and worked for 6 years at the front desk of Milwaukee County Historical Society until I retired 4 years ago. Your website is magnificent. I am British and have friends who are visiting family here and were going to Cedarburg today. I told them about Bernard Schneider’s painting of the Milwaukee Exposition Center and looked him up briefly and found your website. I’ve written the name down now so I can gorge on your research.     I was amazed when they moved the Battle of Atlanta to a new building by cutting in half and using a crane to drop it into the new building. I’ve only been to Atlanta once, in my 20s, and couldn’t have imagined anything historic coming out of that city, so if the virus ever recedes maybe I will get to see Clark Gable’s face on one of the soldiers after he said he thought he ought to be in it (a bit like William Shatner going to space out of a sense of self importance). Great that you are finding women artists. Other than the potential problems of working with men in the field, since many were German there might have been fewer problems than women had in the goldrush towns!
    Keep up the brilliant work. 
    Juliet Hills

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    1. Thank you for your kind words, Juliet. Happy holidays!

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