Woldemar Neufeld was an artist primarily known for his oils, watercolors, and block prints. He spent his teen and young adult years in Canada, and most of his adult life in the U.S., but remained a beloved artist there, the subject of exhibitions in 2009 to celebrate the centenary of his birth. Neufeld was born in Waldheim, Russia, to a family of German Mennonite descent that immigrated to Canada in 1924 after his father was executed amid the political turmoil following the Russian Revolution and his mother remarried. He attended a preparatory school on what is now the Wilfred Laurier University campus followed by study at Ontario College of Art. He continued his studies at the Cleveland Institute of Art and earned a B.S. in art education from Case Western Reserve University.<\/p>\n
In 1945, Neufeld moved from Cleveland to the Upper East Side of New York City, where he became known as the \u201cartist laureate of the East River,\u201d recording his impressions of the waterfront neighborhoods in oils, watercolor and block prints. He served as art director of the East River Artists from 1948 to 1975. In 1976, his works were shown in New York City at the South Street Seaport Museum in an exhibit titled \u201cYesterday\u2019s Lower Manhattan.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 1949, Neufeld purchased a farm in New Milford, Connecticut, where he was based for the rest of his life, though he maintained a New York studio until 1980. In New Milford he opened a studio, gallery and \u2014 until 1965 \u2014 a summer art school, and focused his own artistic efforts on landscape painting inspired by the Housatonic River Valley countryside. He was a member of Connecticut\u2019s Silvermine Guild and participated in their exhibitions including a one-person show in 1957.<\/p>\n
Even after his death, Neufeld remains a popular artist in the Kitchener-Waterloo and Toronto areas of Ontario where he spent his early years and associated with Canada\u2019s leading artists as a young man in the 1920s and \u201930s. The largest collection of his work \u2014 some 400 pieces \u2014 belongs to the Permanent Art Collection at Wilfred Laurier University, where he received an honorary doctorate in 1988. It has produced a catalog of his paintings and block prints,\u00a0Woldemar Neufeld\u2019s Canada: A Mennonite Artist in the Canadian Landscape 1925-1995<\/strong>\u00a0(2002). The City of Waterloo and Conrad Grebel College also hold collections of his work, some of which appear in the book\u00a0Waterloo Portfolio: Woldemar Neufeld\u2019s Paintings of Waterloo, Ontario<\/strong>\u00a0(1982). His works are also in numerous American museum collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Cleveland Museum of Art.<\/p>\n Condition: Generally fine overall, the colors bright, with minor toning, wear, handling. This print had been purchased directly from Neufeld by the former owner, and formed part of a large collection of his works. Relatively, this is one of Neufeld\u2019s larger prints.<\/p>\n References:<\/p>\n Evans, Jeffrey B. “A Short History of Carl Schurz Park.” Carl Schurz Park Conservancy.<\/em> https:\/\/www.carlschurzparknyc.org\/the-history-of-the-park (17 June 2019).<\/p>\n Gilbert, Dorothy B., ed.\u00a0Who\u2019s Who in American Art.<\/em>\u00a0New York: American Federation of Arts and R.R. Bowker, 1959. p. 419.<\/p>\n Helsen, Marc Miquel. \u201cWoldemar Neufeld Art Gets Its Own Gallery.\u201d\u00a0Woolwich and Wellesley Townships Observer.<\/em>\u00a019 June 2009. http:\/\/observerxtra.com\/2\/business\/woldemar-neufeld-art-gets-its-own-gallery\/ (31 May 2019).<\/p>\n “Carl Schurz Park, John Finley Walk.” NYC Parks.<\/em> https:\/\/www.nycgovparks.org\/parks\/M081\/monuments\/479 (25 July 2019).<\/p>\n \u201cNeufeld, Woldemar Heinrich (1909-2002).\u201d\u00a0Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online.\u00a0<\/em>1996-2019. https:\/\/gameo.org\/index.php?title=Neufeld,_Woldemar_Heinrich_(1909-2002) (31 May 2019).<\/p>\n \u201cWoldemar Neufeld.\u201d\u00a0Wilfrid Laurier University, Robert Langen Art Gallery, Collections.<\/em>\u00a02011. http:\/\/www.wlu.ca\/page.php?grp_id=12554&p=18143 (22 September 2011).<\/p>\n \u201cWoldemar Neufeld 1909-2002.\u201d\u00a0Housatonic Valley Association.<\/em>\u00a0http:\/\/www.hvatoday.org\/show.cfm?page=events\/neufeldbio.htm&folder=events (22 September 2011).<\/p>\n \u201cWork of Woldemar Neufeld displays Yesterday\u2019s Manhattan in Whitinsville.\u201d\u00a0The Pulse Magazine.<\/em>\u00a028 August 2018. http:\/\/thepulsemag.com\/wordpress\/2018\/08\/work-of-woldemar-neufeld-displays-yesterdays-manhattan-in-whitinsville (31 May 2019).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Woldemar Neufeld (1909-2002) Colorful view of the East River and the FDR Drive, looking north from 81st Street, in the Yorkville neighborhood of Manhattan’s Upper East Side. The view shows the divided highway and the elevated pedestrian walkway that crosses over it and continues along the river, where people are walking. Barges and boats travel the river. The tip of Roosevelt Island with Roosevelt Island Lighthouse is visible offshore and the opposite shore in Queens is also shown. In the background are the Hell Gate and RFK Triborough Bridges. This is a block print with the water painted by hand, according to a notation by the artist in the lower margin.<\/p>\n Hell Gate is a narrow strait in the East River between Queens and Ward’s Island, across the river from the Upper East Side of Manhattan between 90th and 100th Streets. It was named by a 17th-century Dutch explorer for its circling currents which are tricky to navigate. The Hell Gate Bridge is an imposing steel arch railroad bridge built in 1917 and still in use by passenger and freight trains. The RFK Triborough Bridge, which opened in 1936, is a complex of highway bridges and elevated viaducts that connects the boroughs of Manhattan, Queens, and the Bronx.<\/p>\n Product description continues below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":23031,"template":"","meta":{"wds_primary_product_brand":0,"wds_primary_product_cat":0,"footnotes":""},"product_brand":[],"product_cat":[4222],"product_tag":[61,663,6736,8026,8028,6442,836,2482,670,1694,541,657,1673,8031,8029,7967,7939,709,1693,7666],"class_list":{"0":"post-23019","1":"product","2":"type-product","3":"status-publish","4":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"product_cat-archive-sold-art-design","7":"product_tag-20th-century","8":"product_tag-bridge","9":"product_tag-east-end","10":"product_tag-fdr-drive","11":"product_tag-hell-gate","12":"product_tag-highway","13":"product_tag-lighthouse","14":"product_tag-linocut","15":"product_tag-manhattan","16":"product_tag-neufeld","17":"product_tag-new-york","18":"product_tag-new-york-city","19":"product_tag-print","20":"product_tag-roosevelt-island","21":"product_tag-triborough-bridge","22":"product_tag-ues","23":"product_tag-upper-east-side","24":"product_tag-view","25":"product_tag-woldemar","26":"product_tag-yorkville","27":"post","28":"post-with-thumbnail","29":"post-with-thumbnail-large","31":"first","32":"instock","33":"product-type-simple"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.georgeglazer.com\/wpmain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product\/23019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.georgeglazer.com\/wpmain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.georgeglazer.com\/wpmain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/product"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.georgeglazer.com\/wpmain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product\/23019\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42949,"href":"https:\/\/www.georgeglazer.com\/wpmain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product\/23019\/revisions\/42949"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.georgeglazer.com\/wpmain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.georgeglazer.com\/wpmain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"product_brand","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.georgeglazer.com\/wpmain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_brand?post=23019"},{"taxonomy":"product_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.georgeglazer.com\/wpmain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_cat?post=23019"},{"taxonomy":"product_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.georgeglazer.com\/wpmain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_tag?post=23019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nEast River at 81st Street<\/strong>
\nAmerican: 3rd Quarter 20th Century
\nColor-printed linocut and artist hand coloring
\nTitled, signed and annotated in pencil lower margin, initialed in block lower right
\nProvenance: Purchased directly from the artist by the previous owner
\n12.25 x 18 inches, image
\n16.75 x 23.25 inches, overall<\/p>\n