Severin Roesen

Severin Roesen (b. Germany 1815/16-after 1872)

Probably born in Cologne, Germany, Severin Roesen first exhibited in that city in 1847. His move to New York in 1848 was likely prompted by the ongoing wars in Germany; a number of his countrymen, including still-life painters Werner Hunzinger, Charles Backhofen, and George Hetzel, also fled to the United States at that time. From 1848 to 1852 he exhibited eleven canvases at the American Art-Union in New York. Otherwise Roesen rarely exhibited his work.

Roesen left New York around 1857 and lived in a series of small Pennsylvania towns before settling in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, where he lived from about 1862 to 1872. Roesen's pictures of nature's abundance found a ready market in the town's growing population of prosperous lumbermen, who purchased them to adorn their newly built homes. Many of Williamsport's residents were German immigrants whose heritage was in tune with the stylistic ancestry of Roesen's work. By all accounts Roesen was highly successful and extremely well liked in Williamsport, where he painted for local taverns, restaurants, and hotels as well as for private homes. During his ten years there, he stayed in a succession of hotels and residences, which he adorned with pictures in exchange for room and board. One hotelier and brewer, Jacob Flock, owned more than fifty paintings by Roesen, which were presumably traded for room and board.

Roesen left Williamsport around 1872 and his whereabouts after then are uncertain. Many have speculated that he may have returned to New York, at the height of his career, to once again test his skills in the art market, but unfortunately no records exist to support or refute that claim. Roesen is today recognized as a significant nineteenth-century American still-life painter. Yet despite his legacy--over five hundred high-quality paintings--little is known about him. Information survives mainly in his paintings and in a strong oral tradition in Williamsport, where the majority of his works were passed down through local families.

Fruit and Wine Glass, ca. 1860-65

Oil on canvas, 29 7/8 x 25 1/8 in. (75.9 x 63.8 cm)

Signed (lower right): S. Roesen

Charles F. Smith Fund (1964.53)

While virtually nothing is known about Roesen's early training, most scholars agree he probably began as a porcelain painter--the floral still life he exhibited in Cologne in 1847 was enamel on porcelain. Roesen's early floral compositions and modest fruit pieces, as well as his piecemeal method of assembling his arrangements, are reminiscent of the work of Dutch still-life artists such as Jan van Huysem, who worked on their canvases over several seasons in order to include a large variety of flowers painted from life. (1) The repetition of motifs and the exclusive use of the same subject matter in Roesen's paintings, however, strongly suggest that he did paint from nature but reused items from a stock of paintings.

Numerous items in “Fruit and Wine Glass”, for example, appear in other paintings as well. The footed desert plate full of strawberries is a common motif. The pilsner, sometimes accompanied by an open bottle of champagne, is interchangeable with a wine goblet filled with lemonade. The glass is nearly always placed at the lower left edge of the painting. A halved lemon, either with or without peel, often appears nearby. Branches full of grapes always anchor Roesen's fruit pieces--their diagonal placement from lower left to upper right provides the composition with a graceful Baroque S-curve and subtly leads the viewer's eye over the entire display. (Similarly, the S-curve is created in Roesen's floral pieces through a contrast of large light-colored blooms against smaller darker flowers.) Here Roesen uses white grapes for the central portion of the canvas. The composition is balanced by light and dark grapes at either side and filled in by scattered raspberries, cherries, peaches, apples, pears, and apricots. Other aspects Roesen derived from Dutch works are the brilliant color, the modulated background--dark on one side and light on the other--and the protruding grape branches and tendrils. These devices, along with the S-shaped arrangement, enhance the three-dimensional and illusionistic qualities of the work.

While Roesen's paintings reveal a meticulous attention to detail in their precise arrangements and close brushwork, his subject matter, even down to specific motifs, did not change throughout his career. Sometimes he made near copies of paintings, but usually he merely rearranged and reassembled stock elements. He may have used templates for his fruit pieces or based various components of his arrangements on botanical prints. Additionally some paintings suggest the work of another hand, probably that of a student.

Roesen did not date the majority of his works. With only twenty-one known dated canvases, a chronological development of Roesen's style, if there is one, is impossible to discern. Likewise, it is virtually impossible to date particular canvases, for Roesen painted the same motifs throughout his career. However, an early vertical, oval, two-tiered fruit piece, “Fruit Still Life with Bird's Nest” (private collection), is dated 1854. (2) Like “Fruit and Wine Glass”, it includes a strawberry epergne, a lemon, a beverage glass, and grape clusters on a black marble tabletop, the lower tier of which is arched at the left. Another group of two-tiered fruit assortments, similar but not identical to the New Britain piece, have been dated 1860-65. (3)

MAS

Notes:

1. On possible European antecedents of Roesen's work, see William H. Gerdts, "On the Tabletop: Europe and America," Art in America 60 (September/October 1972): 62-69.

2. Illustrated in Marcus, Severin Roesen, p. 33.

3. O'Toole, Severin Roesen, p. 33. O'Toole notes that nine versions of this assortment exist, all oval, measuring 30 by 25 inches