Johann Georg Schwartze

Vocation

Dutch-American painter, member and founder of a noted artists family. He was born in Amsterdam as the son of Johann Engelbert Schwartze (Vlotho) and Clara Eleonora Schildbach. When he was three, his parents moved to Philadelphia (1819), where his father started a company in paints and lacquers. His death certificate states that he was even born in Philadelphia, but that does not fit with his birth record. Maybe he and his relatives believed so. In 1838 he returned to Europe to study fine art at the Staatliche Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. Around 1844 he returned to Amsterdam with the intent to ship to America. But he stayed in Amsterdam. Here he became a valued portrait painter, painting teacher of his daughters Thérèse Schwartze and the sculptor Georgine Schwartze, member of the Royal Academy (1845) and artists society "Arti et Amicitiae"(1847) He died on 28 Augustus 1874 3h AM in Amsterdam. Personal In 1846 he married in Koblenz with Maria Elisabeth Therese Herrmann (1825). The got four daughters an a son. Clara Theresia Schwartze (1848-1923) became the mother of the female painters Lizzy Ansingh and Therese or Sorella Ansingh. Thérèse Schwartze (20 December 1851 – 23 December 1918) became a celebrated portrait painter. Georgine Schwartze (12 April 1854, A'dam - 8 Augustus 1935, A'dam) became a sculptor. Since 1 May 1856 the family and his mother lived at the Prinsengracht 1091 (pdf). In that year their youngest daughter died. Their son George Washington Schwartze (21 december 1857, A'dam - 4 February 1909, Rosmalen) was again a painter. Link to Dutch Wikipedia