Christian Alsdorff

Last updated August 25, 2024

Christian Alsdorff (died 1838) was an American Fraktur artist.

Nothing is known of Alsdorff's origins, and no record of his birth has been discovered. For many years he was a schoolmaster; his name appeared in a history of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, years after his death.

Alsdorff's earliest dated Fraktur is a piece made for a student in Earl Township in that county in December 1791. Evidence shows that his career took him to Montgomery and Dauphin Counties as well as Lancaster County, and later in life to Mifflin County as well. Stylistically his paintings indicate a familiarity with the work of the brothers Johann Adam and Johann Friedrich Eyer; in turn, his work influenced the art of Christian Strenge.

He also appears to have been aware of the work made at Ephrata Cloister. Much of Alsdorff's work was made for the Mennonites. It includes books of musical notation, religious texts, writing examples, bookplates, and presentation pieces, all related in some fashion to educational endeavors.^[1]

Five works attributed to Alsdorff, all originally from Earl Township, are in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.^[2]

Related Research Articles

Earl Township is a township in northeastern Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 7,149 at the 2020 census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fraktur (folk art)</span> Illuminated folk art from Pennsylvania

Fraktur is a highly artistic and elaborate illuminated folk art created by the Pennsylvania Dutch, named after the Fraktur script associated with it. Most Fraktur were created between 1740 and 1860.

Ferdinand Arnold Brader is known for his large detailed pencil drawings of farms and other dwellings in rural Pennsylvania and Ohio.

Anna Weber (1814–1888) was a Canadian Mennonite Fraktur artist.

Jacob Strickler was an American fraktur artist.

Daniel Schumacher was an American fraktur painter. He was the first artist to use fraktur as a method of general record-keeping, rather than a document of important events.

Francis Charles Portzline was an American fraktur artist of German birth.

Johann Jacob Friedrich Krebs, commonly known as Friedrich Krebs was an American fraktur artist. He was the most prolific of the Pennsylvania German fraktur artists.

Johann HenrichOtto was an American fraktur artist.

Daniel Otto was an American fraktur artist.

Christian Mertel was an American fraktur artist.

Johannes ErnstSpangenberg (1755–1814) was an American fraktur artist.

Johann Christian Strenge was an American fraktur artist.

Samuel Bentz (1792–1850) was an American fraktur artist.

Martin Brechall was an American fraktur artist.

Johann Adam Eyer (1755–1837) was an American fraktur artist.

Johann Conrad Gilbert (1734–1812) was an American fraktur artist.

Samuel Gottschall (1800–1898) was an American fraktur artist.

The Sussel-Washington Artist was an American fraktur artist active during the 1770s and 1780s.

Jacob Maentel or Mental (1763–1863) was a German-American folk artist known for his portrayal of 19th-Century America. Maentel is most notable for his watercolor portrait art that minutely portrayed the décor and dress of early American immigrant communities.

References

↑ Gerard C. Wertkin (2 August 2004). Encyclopedia of American Folk Art . Routledge. ISBN 978-1-135-95614-1.
↑ "Philadelphia Museum of Art - Collections : Search Collections". www.philamuseum.org. Retrieved Apr 4, 2019.

This article about a painter from the United States is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[Wertkin2004-1] Gerard C. Wertkin (2 August 2004). Encyclopedia of American Folk Art . Routledge. ISBN 978-1-135-95614-1.

[2] "Philadelphia Museum of Art - Collections : Search Collections". www.philamuseum.org. Retrieved Apr 4, 2019.

[1]

[2]