Der Eisgang Pforzheims

Object number2010.39.54

Artist Carl T. Schofer (1860 - 1920)

Date1880

Mediumpaint; paper

Credit LineTransfer from Steel Industry Heritage Corporation

DescriptionRectangular painting on paper attached to paper. Features multicolored scene of a wintery village with an icy river; chunks of ice are depicted on bank of river. Bridge in center of painting is broken, with two groups of people on either side of remaining bridge. Church is on left. A single person is depicted on edge of bank, apparently drawing scene before him. Rectangular borders in black surround painting.Dimensions25.25 x 17.125 in. (64.1 x 43.5 cm)
Signed"H. Schofer, fer. / 1880" in lower left corner.
InscriptionsText painted below border: "DER EISGANG PFORZHEIMS / am 1 Januar 1880."
Historical Notes"DER EISGANG PFORZHEIMS am 1 Januar 1880" roughly translates from German to English: "Pforzheim's ice passage on January 1, 1880." Pforzheim is a town located in Baden-Wrttemberg, southwest Germany, at the entrance to the Black Forest. The father and son duo of Carl and Erwin Schofer provided interior design, ornamental painting, fresco restoration, as well as a variety of other design services in Southwestern Pennsylvania and throughout the Midwest during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Carl Schofer was born in Germany in 1860. He completed trade school in Stuttgart, Germany, in 1881, and soon after immigrated to the United States, where he began designing sketches for decorative structure paintings in Brooklyn, N.Y. He was soon helping to decorate U.S. government buildings in preparation for the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893, adorning them with interior landscape paintings. Schofer relocated to Buffalo, N.Y., where he published several design pieces, and also presented several wall paintings at the 1901 Pan-American exhibition. Carl Schofer again relocated to Pittsburgh, Pa., where he opened his own studio in the Duquesne Heights neighborhood as a fresco artist and designer. He was a member of the Pittsburgh Art Association. When Carl Schofer died in 1920, his son Erwin, who had been groomed as his successor, took over his father business. Erwin Schofer continued to operate his father’s fresco, painting, and interior design studio on Oneida Street in Duquesne Heights after his death. Erwin had studied art and painting in Europe during the early twentieth century, where he attended several vocational and post-graduate institutions. During World War I, he served with the Medical Department of the United States Army at Camp Lee, Va., from 1917 until 1919, after which he took up his father’s business full-time. In the late 1920s and 1930s he began contract work for the City of Pittsburgh, primarily as a foreman for Works Progress Administration projects in the region. Schofer completed painting and restoration design projects throughout the city and county, including work at Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall, the Allegheny County building, and Riverview Park swimming pool. He was involved in several local unions, such as the Brotherhood of Painters Decorations and Paperhangers of America, and was a member and president of the Duquesne Heights Civic Association. He and his Wife, Dora Schofer, had three daughters.

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