Henry Mosler

Henry Mosler (Tropplowitz, Silesia, 1841 – New York, 1920) was a German-born painter who documented American life, from colonial scenes and Civil War illustrations to portraits of members of high society. Although he was formed in the United States, much of his career unfolded in Europe, linking the academic painting of Düsseldorf, Munich and Paris with an American audience.

He arrived in New York in 1849 and soon moved with his family to Cincinnati, home to a substantial German-Jewish community. As a young man he worked as an apprentice wood engraver and as a draughtsman for a humorous paper. In 1862 and 1863 he served as an art correspondent for Harper's Weekly during the Civil War; his drawings, strongly aligned with the Union cause, appeared in the magazine and recorded campaigns in Kentucky and Ohio.

After studying in Düsseldorf, Paris and Munich, he returned to Cincinnati in 1866 and painted The Lost Cause, the first work that earned him significant recognition, shown at the National Academy of Design in 1868. In 1877 he settled in France, and while living in Brittany he exhibited The Quadroon Girl at the Salon of 1878. His Le Retour, shown at the Paris Salon of 1879, became the first American painting purchased for the Luxembourg Palace. In 1894 he moved back to New York, opening a studio in Carnegie Hall, and he kept painting well into the twentieth century.

His legacy is held mainly in American museums, including the Cincinnati Art Museum and the Smithsonian American Art Museum. His son Gustave Henry Mosler also became an artist.