Frederick Gottwald

Frederick Carl Gottwald was a traditionalist American painter who was influential in the development of the Cleveland School of art, sometimes called the dean of Cleveland painters. He taught at the Western Reserve School of Design for Women , and it has been said that he contributed more than any other person to Clevelands artistic development.

Gottwald was born in Austria, to Frederick and Caroline Grosse Gottwald, and emigrated to Cleveland, Ohio, as an infant. He first studied painting with Archibald Willard in 1874, with whom he would found the Cleveland Art Club in 1876. He then moved to New York City to continue his training at the Art Students League of New York, followed by stints at the Royal Academy in Munich, the Acadmie Julian in Paris, and Cooper Union back in New York. Upon his return to Cleveland in September 1885, he joined the faculty of the design school and would be associated with them for the next 41 years, including serving as director from 188991. His directorship was ended by a demotion to headmaster and there was such bad feeling between him and his replacement, Newton A. Wells, that the two men ended up in a fistfight. Although Gottwald was allowed to remain at the school as an instructor, he never regained the position of director. As an instructor, he taught a large number of Clevelandbased artists

Source: Wikipedia