Arnold Ronnebeck
Encyclopedia
Arnold Rönnebeck was a German-born American modernist
artist and museum administrator. He was a vital member of both the European and American avant-garde
movements of the early twentieth century before settling in Denver, Colorado
. Rönnebeck is best known for his lithographs in a range of subjects including New York cityscapes, New Mexico and Colorado landscapes and Native American dances.
in 1885 to a well educated family. His father, Richard, was an architect and encouraged Rönnebeck to follow in his footsteps. After two years of study at the Royal Art School in both Berlin and Munich, Rönnebeck decided to pursue sculpture and moved to Paris
in 1908. In Paris, he studied with Aristide Maillol
and Emile Antoine Bourdelle. Rönnebeck met the American Modernist painter, Marsden Hartley
and they became close friends as they moved through the avant-garde circles of Paris and Berlin. He regularly attended Gertrude Stein
’s “salons” and according to Stein, “Rönnebeck was charming and always invited to dinner,” together with Pablo Picasso
, Mabel Dodge, and Charles Demuth
. While living in Paris, Rönnebeck completed sculptural commissions for the wealthy and portraits of his friends. His bust of Marsden Hartley
was included in Hartley’s 1914 solo show at Alfred Stieglitz
’s Gallery 291.
The outbreak of World War I forced Rönnebeck back to Germany where he fought on the front lines. He was wounded twice and awarded the Iron Cross
by Kaiser Wilhelm II. Arnold Rönnebeck’s cousin was Lieutenant Karl von Freyburg, whom Hartley would fall in love with and follow from Paris to Berlin. Freyburg was killed in combat, and Hartley would create Portrait of a German Officer (1914) as a tribute to Freyburg.
, John Marin
, Georgia O’Keeffe, Marsden Hartley
and Charles Demuth
. Rönnebeck wrote a catalogue essay for the landmark exhibition, Alfred Stieglitz Presents Seven Americans at the Anderson Gallery in 1925. Rönnebeck was a prolific writer and art critic and wrote numerous essays and articles about art throughout his career. The lithographs Rönnebeck made in New York are among his better known works. They borrow from the precisionism
movement and show a fascination with the skyscraper and the landscape of the city, what Rönnebeck termed as “living cubism.” The Weyhe Gallery, directed by Carl Zigrosser, gave Rönnebeck his first solo show in 1926 and represented him for the rest of his life.
In the summer of 1925, Rönnebeck went to visit his friend Mabel Dodge Luhan
in Taos, New Mexico
at her artists' enclave. The trip proved important in two ways; the desert landscape and the Indigenous peoples of New Mexico became recurrent themes in Rönnebeck’s work, and secondly, Rönnebeck met painter named Louise Emerson
(1901-1980). Emerson was from Philadelphia and studied with Kenneth Hayes Miller
. They were married in March 1926 in New York.
. While visiting the museum, he was offered the position of Art Director, which he accepted. He served as director from 1926 to 1931, encouraging development of the museum's collection of American Indian art and the curation of modernist art exhibitions. The couple became involved in the local Denver art scene, being welcomed into a community of artists that included Allen True, John E. Thompson, Ethel
and Jenne Magafan, Frank Mechau, Vance Kirkland, Frank Vavra, Marion Buchan, Elisabeth Spalding, and others. In addition to his work at the museum, Rönnebeck wrote a weekly art column in the Rocky Mountain News
. Rönnebeck continued making lithographs, mainly of the Colorado landscape, mining towns
and New Mexico. He received numerous commissions in Denver and the surrounding areas.
Rönnebeck was an amateur actor and music enthusiast and became very involved with the renovation of the Central City Opera House
in the historic mining town of Central City, Colorado
. He performed with the Central City Opera
in their presentation of The Merry Widow
with Natalie Hall, Gladys Swarthout
and Richard Bonelli
. Rönnebeck gained American citizenship in 1932. Arnold and Louise Rönnebeck had two children, Arnold and Ursula. He died of throat cancer in 1947 at the age of 62.
American modernism
American modernism like modernism in general is a trend of thought that affirms the power of human beings to create, improve, and reshape their environment, with the aid of scientific knowledge, technology and practical experimentation, and is thus in its essence both progressive and optimistic...
artist and museum administrator. He was a vital member of both the European and American avant-garde
Avant-garde
Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
movements of the early twentieth century before settling in Denver, Colorado
Denver, Colorado
The City and County of Denver is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Denver is a consolidated city-county, located in the South Platte River Valley on the western edge of the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains...
. Rönnebeck is best known for his lithographs in a range of subjects including New York cityscapes, New Mexico and Colorado landscapes and Native American dances.
Personal life and education
Arnold Rönnebeck was born in Nassau, GermanyNassau, Germany
Nassau is a town located in the German Land of Rhineland-Palatinate. It lies in the Lahn River valley between the cities of Bad Ems and Limburg an der Lahn. Nassau is the seat of the Verbandsgemeinde of Nassau. The town is on the German-Dutch holiday road, the Orange Route...
in 1885 to a well educated family. His father, Richard, was an architect and encouraged Rönnebeck to follow in his footsteps. After two years of study at the Royal Art School in both Berlin and Munich, Rönnebeck decided to pursue sculpture and moved to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
in 1908. In Paris, he studied with Aristide Maillol
Aristide Maillol
Aristide Maillol or Aristides Maillol was a French Catalan sculptor and painter.-Biography:...
and Emile Antoine Bourdelle. Rönnebeck met the American Modernist painter, Marsden Hartley
Marsden Hartley
Marsden Hartley was an American Modernist painter, poet, and essayist.-Early life and education:Hartley was born in Lewiston, Maine, where his English parents had settled. He was the youngest of nine children. His mother died when he was eight, and his father remarried four years later to Martha...
and they became close friends as they moved through the avant-garde circles of Paris and Berlin. He regularly attended Gertrude Stein
Gertrude Stein
Gertrude Stein was an American writer, poet and art collector who spent most of her life in France.-Early life:...
’s “salons” and according to Stein, “Rönnebeck was charming and always invited to dinner,” together with Pablo Picasso
Pablo Picasso
Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso known as Pablo Ruiz Picasso was a Spanish expatriate painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer, one of the greatest and most influential artists of the...
, Mabel Dodge, and Charles Demuth
Charles Demuth
Charles Demuth was an American watercolorist who turned to oils late in his career, developing a style of painting known as Precisionism....
. While living in Paris, Rönnebeck completed sculptural commissions for the wealthy and portraits of his friends. His bust of Marsden Hartley
Marsden Hartley
Marsden Hartley was an American Modernist painter, poet, and essayist.-Early life and education:Hartley was born in Lewiston, Maine, where his English parents had settled. He was the youngest of nine children. His mother died when he was eight, and his father remarried four years later to Martha...
was included in Hartley’s 1914 solo show at Alfred Stieglitz
Alfred Stieglitz
Alfred Stieglitz was an American photographer and modern art promoter who was instrumental over his fifty-year career in making photography an accepted art form...
’s Gallery 291.
The outbreak of World War I forced Rönnebeck back to Germany where he fought on the front lines. He was wounded twice and awarded the Iron Cross
Iron Cross
The Iron Cross is a cross symbol typically in black with a white or silver outline that originated after 1219 when the Kingdom of Jerusalem granted the Teutonic Order the right to combine the Teutonic Black Cross placed above a silver Cross of Jerusalem....
by Kaiser Wilhelm II. Arnold Rönnebeck’s cousin was Lieutenant Karl von Freyburg, whom Hartley would fall in love with and follow from Paris to Berlin. Freyburg was killed in combat, and Hartley would create Portrait of a German Officer (1914) as a tribute to Freyburg.
Migration to America
In 1922 Rönnebeck moved to New York City. In New York, he was immediately welcomed into Stieglitz’s circle of American avant-garde artists that included Arthur DoveArthur Dove
Arthur Garfield Dove was an American artist. An early American modernist, he is often considered the first American abstract painter.-Youth and education:...
, John Marin
John Marin
John Marin was an early American modernist artist. He is known for his abstract landscapes and watercolors.-Biography:...
, Georgia O’Keeffe, Marsden Hartley
Marsden Hartley
Marsden Hartley was an American Modernist painter, poet, and essayist.-Early life and education:Hartley was born in Lewiston, Maine, where his English parents had settled. He was the youngest of nine children. His mother died when he was eight, and his father remarried four years later to Martha...
and Charles Demuth
Charles Demuth
Charles Demuth was an American watercolorist who turned to oils late in his career, developing a style of painting known as Precisionism....
. Rönnebeck wrote a catalogue essay for the landmark exhibition, Alfred Stieglitz Presents Seven Americans at the Anderson Gallery in 1925. Rönnebeck was a prolific writer and art critic and wrote numerous essays and articles about art throughout his career. The lithographs Rönnebeck made in New York are among his better known works. They borrow from the precisionism
Precisionism
Precisionism, also known as Cubist Realism, was an artistic movement that emerged in the United States after World War I and was at its height during the inter-War period...
movement and show a fascination with the skyscraper and the landscape of the city, what Rönnebeck termed as “living cubism.” The Weyhe Gallery, directed by Carl Zigrosser, gave Rönnebeck his first solo show in 1926 and represented him for the rest of his life.
In the summer of 1925, Rönnebeck went to visit his friend Mabel Dodge Luhan
Mabel Dodge Luhan
Mabel Evans Dodge Sterne Luhan , née Ganson was a wealthy American patron of the arts. She is particularly associated with the Taos art colony.-Early life:...
in Taos, New Mexico
Taos, New Mexico
Taos is a town in Taos County in the north-central region of New Mexico, incorporated in 1934. As of the 2000 census, its population was 4,700. Other nearby communities include Ranchos de Taos, Cañon, Taos Canyon, Ranchitos, and El Prado. The town is close to Taos Pueblo, the Native American...
at her artists' enclave. The trip proved important in two ways; the desert landscape and the Indigenous peoples of New Mexico became recurrent themes in Rönnebeck’s work, and secondly, Rönnebeck met painter named Louise Emerson
Louise Emerson Ronnebeck
Louise Emerson Ronnebeck was an American painter best known for her murals executed for the Works Progress Administration . Born in Philadelphia she married artist Arnold Ronnebeck in 1926 and they settled in Denver, Colorado...
(1901-1980). Emerson was from Philadelphia and studied with Kenneth Hayes Miller
Kenneth Hayes Miller
Kenneth Hayes Miller was an American painter and teacher.Born in Oneida, New York, he studied at the Art Students League of New York with Kenyon Cox, Henry Siddons Mowbray and with William Merritt Chase at the New York School of Art. He died in New York City.-Students:Miller taught at the Art...
. They were married in March 1926 in New York.
Move to Denver
In May 1926, the couple was on their honeymoon, traveling to California, and Rönnebeck gave a lecture at the fledgling Denver Art MuseumDenver Art Museum
The Denver Art Museum is an art museum in Denver, Colorado located in Denver's Civic Center.It is known for its collection of American Indian art,and has a comprehensive collection numbering more than 68,000 works from across the world....
. While visiting the museum, he was offered the position of Art Director, which he accepted. He served as director from 1926 to 1931, encouraging development of the museum's collection of American Indian art and the curation of modernist art exhibitions. The couple became involved in the local Denver art scene, being welcomed into a community of artists that included Allen True, John E. Thompson, Ethel
Ethel Magafan
Ethel Magafan was an American painter.Magafan was born August 10, 1916, in Chicago, Illinois. Raised in Colorado Springs, Colorado, she studied at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center with Frank Mechau, Boardman Robinson, and Peppino Mangravite, and was a member of the Colorado Springs Fine Arts...
and Jenne Magafan, Frank Mechau, Vance Kirkland, Frank Vavra, Marion Buchan, Elisabeth Spalding, and others. In addition to his work at the museum, Rönnebeck wrote a weekly art column in the Rocky Mountain News
Rocky Mountain News
The Rocky Mountain News was a daily newspaper published in Denver, Colorado, United States from April 23, 1859, until February 27, 2009. It was owned by the E. W. Scripps Company from 1926 until its closing. As of March 2006, the Monday-Friday circulation was 255,427...
. Rönnebeck continued making lithographs, mainly of the Colorado landscape, mining towns
Mining town
A mining community, also known as a mining town or a mining camp, is a community that houses miners. Mining communities are usually created around a mine or a quarry for the extraction or smeltering of ore.-United States:...
and New Mexico. He received numerous commissions in Denver and the surrounding areas.
Rönnebeck was an amateur actor and music enthusiast and became very involved with the renovation of the Central City Opera House
Central City Opera House
The Central City Opera House located in the National Historic Landmark District in Central City, Colorado, USA was constructed in 1878 by Welsh and Cornish miners....
in the historic mining town of Central City, Colorado
Central City, Colorado
Central City is a home rule municipality in Clear Creek and Gilpin counties in the U.S. state of Colorado, and the county seat of Gilpin County. The city population was 515 in the 2000 United States Census...
. He performed with the Central City Opera
Central City Opera
Central City Opera is the fifth-oldest opera company in the United States, founded in 1932. Each festival is presented in the 550-seat historic Central City Opera House built in 1878 in the gold mining era town of Central City, Colorado. Pelham G...
in their presentation of The Merry Widow
The Merry Widow
The Merry Widow is an operetta by the Austro–Hungarian composer Franz Lehár. The librettists, Viktor Léon and Leo Stein, based the story – concerning a rich widow, and her countrymen's attempt to keep her money in the principality by finding her the right husband – on an 1861 comedy play,...
with Natalie Hall, Gladys Swarthout
Gladys Swarthout
Gladys Swarthout was an American mezzo-soprano opera singer.-Career:...
and Richard Bonelli
Richard Bonelli
right|thumb|Bonelli, ca. 1940sRichard Bonelli was an American operatic baritone active from 1915 to the late 1970s.-Life and career:...
. Rönnebeck gained American citizenship in 1932. Arnold and Louise Rönnebeck had two children, Arnold and Ursula. He died of throat cancer in 1947 at the age of 62.
Notable public sculptures
- The History of Money; Colorado Business Bank, Denver
- Reredos; Cathedral of St. John in the Wilderness, Denver
- Trio and Tone Shapes, 1939; Robert and Judi Newman Center for Performing ArtsRobert and Judi Newman Center for Performing ArtsThe Robert and Judi Newman Center for the Performing Arts is located on the University of Denver campus in Denver, Colorado at the southwest corner of Iliff and University. Robert and Judi Newman were asked by former Chancellor Daniel L. Ritchie to spearhead the fundraising effort for the...
, Denver