Theodore Otto Langerfeldt

Theodore Otto Langerfeldt
BornMarch 2, 1841
Bückeburg, Schaumburg-Lippe
DiedSeptember 7, 1906
Boston, Massachusetts
NationalityGerman-American
EducationPolytechnische Schule
Known for

Theodore Otto Langerfeldt (March 2, 1841 – September 7, 1906) was a German-American architectural renderer, watercolorist, and painter.

Biography

Holyoke City Hall in Holyoke, Massachusetts, Charles B. Atwood, architect, Langerfeldt, artist.

Langerfeldt was born March 2, 1841, in Bückeburg, then capital of the German principality of Schaumburg-Lippe.[1] He studied architecture at Polytechnische Schule in Hanover. Circa 1863 Langerfeldt moved to England, where he studied and worked as a painter for five years. In 1868 he moved to the United States, settling in Boston, Massachusetts.[2] He was first noted in the Boston directories in 1870 as an architect with an office in the Studio Building. From 1875 until his death he is instead noted as a watercolor artist.[3]

Langerfeldt was best known for his architectural subjects, and was often employed by architects of Boston and New York to prepare watercolor perspective renderings for competition entries or exhibitions.[4] These architects included Charles B. Atwood, George A. Clough,[5] George Keller,[6] McKim, Mead & White,[7] Peabody & Stearns,[8] William G. Preston[5] and Frederick W. Stickney.[5] Presenting a watercolor by Langerfeldt with a competition design was considered a great advantage.[4] In 1876, at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, one of his drawings received an award.[2]

He was one of the first artists to provide professional rendering services to architects, preceding a later generation which included E. Eldon Deane, David A. Gregg, and Hughson Hawley, among others. He largely withdrew from work for architects in the 1890s, as his health worsened.[4] Following an illness of ten years, Langerfeldt died September 7, 1906, in Boston.[1]

Langerfeldt signed his drawings "T. O. L." In addition to his architectural work, Langerfeldt also painted landscapes, and had a solo show at the Boston Art Club in 1874.[2] Two of his landscapes are in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.


References

  1. ^ a b New England Historical and Genealogical Register, vol. 7 (Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1907)
  2. ^ a b c Clement, Clara Erskine; Hutton, Laurence (1884). Artists of the Nineteenth Century and Their Works: A Handbook Containing Two Thousand and Fifty Biographical Sketches. Vol. I. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Company. pp. 38–39.
  3. ^ Boston directories
  4. ^ a b c "Death of T. O. Langerfeldt," American Architect and Building News 90, no. 1603 (September 15, 1906): 82.
  5. ^ a b c Sturgis, R. Clipston (1890). Catalogue of the First Annual Exhibition of the Boston Architectural Club. Boston Architectural Club.
  6. ^ Stagis, Julie (September 16, 2011). "Soldiers And Sailors Arch To Be Rededicated". The Hartford Courant. Archived from the original on 12 May 2021. Retrieved 13 April 2012.
  7. ^ "Exhibition of the Boston Public Library Plans," American Architect and Building News 23, no. 643 (April 21, 1888): 182.
  8. ^ Holden, Wheaton A. (May 1973). "The Peabody Touch: Peabody and Stearns of Boston, 1870-1917". Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians. 32 (2). University of California Press: 114–131. doi:10.2307/988826. JSTOR 988826 – via JSTOR.