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Peter Frederick Rothermel

Rothermel was one of America's best known history painters of his day. His reputation dwindled as the public's appetite for depictions of emotionally charged events, both real and allegorical, ebbed.

Born July 8, 1817 (some historians use 1814 and 1812) in Nescopek, Pennsylvania and died August 15, 1895 in Linfield, Pennsylvania. Initially he was trained as a surveyor, then worked as a sign painter. Rothermel studied briefly with John R. Smith and Bass Otis. Later he said that it took him six months to get rid of the bad habits Otis taught him. He also studied the collections of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.

He began painting portraits in Philadelphia, but later turned to history, considered to be the highest form of painting to which an artist could aspire. He soon became active in the administration of the Pennsylvania Academy (director 1847-1855), and was a benevolent influence on several generations of aspiring artists.

In 1851, he painted Patrick Henry in the House of Burgesses of Virginia, delivering His Celebrated Speech against the Stamp Act (Patrick Henry Memorial Foundation), one of his best known paintings. Some critics of the day hailed it as " perhaps the best historical painting executed in America"; others thought it looked unfinished.

Rothermel went to Europe in 1856 and lived in Rome until 1859, painting religious and historical works. After the Civil war he was commissioned by the Pennsylvania Legislature to paint a colossal work on the Battle of Gettysburg. It took him five years to complete the painting, now in the William Penn Memorial Museum in Harrisburg, and when it was finished it was

Biography courtesy of Roughton Galleries, www.antiquesandfineart.com/roughton

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