Frederick Rondel
{{Short description|French-born American painter (1826–1892)}}
{{Infobox artist
| image = Frederick Rondel.png
| birth_date = 1826
| birth_place = Paris, France
| death_date = November 1892
| death_place = Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
| movement = Hudson River School
| resting_place = Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
| caption = Rondel {{circa|1866–1871}}
}}
Frederick Rondel (1826 – November 1892) was a French-American landscape painter. Born in Paris, he was tutored in art by Théodore Gudin, who served as a marine painter in King Louis Philippe I's court, before moving to the United States in 1855. In the United States, Rondel exhibited his works and taught painting to a number of pupils, including Winslow Homer and Charles Mielatz. He was a member of the Hudson River School movement and frequently depicted areas such as the Hudson River and the Adirondack Mountains.
Biography
Rondel was born in Paris, France, in 1826.{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Frederick Rondel |encyclopedia=Catalogue of the Collection of American Paintings in the Corcoran Gallery of Art |publisher=Corcoran Gallery of Art |url=https://archive.org/details/cor5_0_s06_ss03_boxrg5_0_2008_034_08/mode/2up |date=1966 |volume=1 |pages=120}} He was first tutored in art by Théodore Gudin, who served as a marine painter in King Louis Philippe I's court.{{Cite web |last=Bird |first=Michelle |title=Théodore Gudin |url=https://fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/plan-your-visit/exhibitions/true-to-nature-open-air-painting-in-europe-1780-1870/artists/theodore-gudin |access-date=12 May 2025 |website=Fitzwilliam Museum}} He was subsequently tutored by Auguste Jugelet, who was also a student of Gudin. Rondel moved to the United States in 1855{{Cite book |last=Davies |first=Thomas |url=https://archive.org/details/collectingstorie0000davi |title=Collecting Stories, 400 Paintings — 400 Stories: A Collection of American Painting |publisher=Laynfaroh |year=2008 |isbn=9780975978313 |pages=67}} and settled in Boston; there, he painted and produced lithographs.{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Frederick Rondel |encyclopedia=Master Paintings from the Butler Institute of American Art |publisher=Butler Institute of American Art |url=https://archive.org/details/masterpaintingsf0000butl |last=Wolfe |first=M. Melissa |publication-date=1994 |pages=80|isbn=978-0-8109-3643-0 }} In 1857, his work was exhibited in New York City at the National Academy of Design; Rondel moved to New York near the end of 1859 and became a member of the National Academy in 1861. He also taught art; he tutored the well-known landscape painter Winslow Homer for a short time.{{Cite book |last=Howat |first=John K. |url=https://archive.org/details/hudsonriveritspa0000unse |title=The Hudson River and Its Painters |publisher=Viking Press |year=1972 |isbn=9780670385584 |pages=137}}{{Cite journal |last=Davis |first=Elliot Bostwick |date=Summer–Autumn 1996 |title=American Drawing Books and Their Impact on Winslow Homer |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1215158 |journal=Winterthur Portfolio |publisher=University of Chicago Press |volume=31 |issue=2/3 |page=148 |doi=10.1086/496683 |jstor=1215158|url-access=subscription }} Later, he trained the artists Charles Mielatz{{Cite journal |date=14 June 1919 |title=Charles Mielatz |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25589494 |journal=American Art News |volume=17 |issue=35 |pages=6 |jstor=25589494 |via= |jstor-access=free}} and F. Benedict Herzog.{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Herzog, Felix Benedict |encyclopedia=Who's Who in New York City and State |publisher=W. F. Brainard |url=https://archive.org/details/whoswhoinnewyor00unkngoog |publication-date=1911 |edition=5th |pages=460}}
File:Matthew Vassar's Town Residence.png
Over the next few years, Rondel moved to various cities while maintaining his studio in New York, including Boston; South Malden, Massachusetts; and Poughkeepsie, New York. He also took extended trips to Europe in 1862 and San Francisco in 1875. He moved to Poughkeepsie by January 1862 and began teaching art to female students there, holding the position of professor of painting at the Cottage Hill Seminary.{{Cite web |title=Frederick Rondel |url=https://dchsny.org/rondel/ |access-date=12 May 2025 |website=Dutchess County Historical Society|date=8 May 2020 }} While there, he was commissioned by the merchant Matthew Vassar to paint a series of works depicting three of Vassar's homes, two of which were located in Poughkeepsie. He also befriended the painter Caroline Morgan Clowes there, whom he mentored and collaborated with up until the later years of his life.File:View Of City Island by Frederick Rondel.jpg
Rondel returned to New York City in 1868, where he continued to paint and exhibit his works, before relocating to New Rochelle, New York, in 1871. By 1892, Rondel had moved to Philadelphia, where died and was buried in November of that year. He was eulogized in the Poughkeepsie Daily Eagle on 1 December, with his obituary reporting that "his paintings are held in high repute". Rondel's son, Fredrick Rondel Jr., also became an artist.{{Cite web |title=Frederick Rondel |url=https://nationalacademy.emuseum.com/people/1136/frederick-rondel |access-date=15 May 2025 |website=National Academy of Design}}
= Work =
Rondel was primarily a landscape painter. He was a member of the Hudson River School movement and frequently depicted local areas such as the Hudson River and the Adirondack Mountains. Beyond landscapes, Rondel also produced genre paintings, still lifes, portraits, and marine paintings. Rondel's works have been exhibited in, among other museums and galleries, the Mint Museum,{{Cite web |title=Old Orchard, Newport, RI |url=https://collections.mintmuseum.org/single?id=2019.7.11 |access-date=12 May 2025 |website=Mint Museum}} the Butler Institute of American Art, and the Corcoran Gallery of Art.
References
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