Franciscan Studies

A FRANCISCAN ARTIST OF KENTUCKY JOHANN SCHMITT, 1825-1898 The noblest philosophy that art can teach us is morality. Art that does not partake of the moral is not worthy to be admired, because the evil effects of immoral art too often leave an indelible stamp on the imagination of fallen man. During the last century Catholic artists came to this country from Europe to embellish our churches and chapels with truly inspiring murals, beautiful works of mind and hand that will live after them. Their works tell the story of their exemplary lives — what their hearts felt, loved, and sincerely believed. Of this goodly number of able and gifted artists, the name of Maler Johann Schmitt stands out in bold relief. He can truly be called a Franciscan artist for, like St. Francis, he loved the beautiful things of life and for thirty-five years was a devout member of the Third Order of St. Francis.1 The God of Love, His Saints, and all things in nature that reflected the Divine Creator were ever uppermost in his mind and heart. Johann Schmitt was born November 17, 1825, at Heinstadt, Baden in Germany, of poor but very devout parents. By good fortune he came, at an early age, in contact with the foremost artists of Munich in Germany. Without any academic training he labored zealously for the development of those latent talents which became manifest in his later works of art. In his formative years Johann did not apply himself exclusively to painting. He was also an ardent lover of music, and he played a cornet in the Bavarian Regimental Band during the German revolution of 1848.2 At the close of the war Schmitt was advised to come to America to seek a larger field for his artistic talents. Arriving in New York City, he settled in the parish of the Most Holy Redeemer, which was then in charge of the Redemptorist Fathers. A short time later he married Dorothy Reichert, who had also come to the United States from Germany and had been received into the 1.St. Anthony Messenger, VI (Cincinnati,, 1898), 67; Maximilian Schaefer, Gedenkbuch der St. Franciícus Kirche (Cincinnati, 1884), p. 287. 2.Cathedral Echoes (Green Bay, December, 1926), 1. 147 148A FRANCISCAN ARTIST OF KENTUCKY Church by the Rev. Francis X. Klarholz, C.SS.R. According to the baptismal records of the church of the Most Holy Redeemer, she was born of John Andrew and Mary Reichert (née Ganz), September 17, 1829, and was baptized Margaret Dorothy, April 12, 1856, with Eva Maria Lindemann as sponsor. After their marriage the happy couple settled at Melrose, a suburb of New York City.3 In the Wahrheitsfreund of 1862, we read the following advertisement : JOHANN SCHMITT Melrose, near New York City, A painter of real Catholic art. Prompt Service.Reasonable Prices. For Reference write to Rev. Caspar Metzler, Melrose, Westchester Co., N.Y.4 After several years of earnest study in New York, Schmitt's first commission was to paint a series of religious pictures for the walls of the church of St. Alphonsus, New York City. The popularity of his murals, the freshness of his coloring, the chasteness of his designs at once secured for him other contracts, and his rise to fame was phenomenal. Other altar pictures and murals for the churches in the East confirmed the verdict of the critics. COVINGTON, KENTUCKY In the year 1862, the Very Rev. Prior Odilo von der Gruen, O.S.B., was sent to St. Joseph's church, Covington, Kentucky, by the Rt. Rev. Abbot Boniface Wimmer, O.S.B. His great ambition was to procure new altars for his church and for the out-missions of Ashland, Florence, Augusta, St. John's Hill, and Mullin's 3.Letter of Rev. Michail G. Will, C.SS.R., New York, June 11, 1945. 4.Der Wahrheitsfreund, XXV (Cincinnati, March 12, 1862), 27-31. Der Wahrheitsfreund was founded on April 17, 1837, by Rev. John Martin Henni, who became the first bishop of Milwaukee in 1844. The old files of this Catholic weekly are preserved in the Salzmann Library, St. Francis Seminary, Milwaukee, Wis., and in...