Adolf Manfred Trautschold (German, 1854 -) “Courtship”
Oil on Canvas 24 1/2 x 34 inches
Manfred was the son of the German portrait painter Wilhelm Trautschold (1815–1877). His mother, Sophie Johnston, was Irish. He married Marguerite De Hoos, a Belgian, and had two children Reginald William Trautschold (b. 1879), Gordon Manfred Trautschold (1883 – 1951).
In 1883 he, Harry Fenn, a very well-known illustrator, and others contributed illustrations to the Christmas edition of The Penny Illustrated Paper. All these drawings look very poor. He also illustrated the book Hunting the Jaguar in Venezuela with Harry Fenn. In 1887 he immigrated to America. He lived at 90 Upper Mountain, Montclair, NJ. Fenn lived on the same street and the town became a magnet for artists.
Although Manfred described himself as an artist on the 1900 and 1910 census forms there doesn’t seem to be much evidence today that he painted much. The money must have come from somewhere because he owned a large house, he had a live-in servant and he put his two sons through university.
In 1918 Manfred’s son Reginald co-authored a book on the benefits of Taylorism which seems an odd thing for someone from an artistic background to do. Taylorism is all about taking all the individualism out of work by making all the procedures repetitive and efficient. You get more work out of the employees but they don’t last long under such a regime. Perhaps he wanted to get more work out of his dad. The other son became an architect in New York. Both of them did very well for themselves and now Manfred has many descendants in Arizona and New York.
Manfred Trautschold died on the 13th of December 1921 at 149 Madison Avenue, Flushing, Queens, New York. Although I like looking at the houses of those I research I didn’t bother looking for Manfred Trautschold’s house because that street is now called 41st Avenue and the house numbers have probably all been changed. The house, like his old house in Montclair, has probably been pulled down anyway.
