Johannes Adam Simon Oertel

Johannes Adam Simon Oertel (3 November 1823 in Fürth, Bavaria – 9 December 1909)[1] was a German-American Episcopal clergyman and artist.

[3] His painting Rock of Ages became enormously popular and was reproduced in millions of photographs and chromolithographs and sold in both the U.S. and England.

He painted some historical battle scenes, including one of the American Revolutionary War's Battle of Sullivan's Island, and some illustrations for Harper's Weekly, including a cover for the magazine's November 15, 1864 issue, Convalescent Soldiers Passing through Washington, DC, to Re-join their Units and The Union Scout.

While residing in Westerly, Rhode Island, Oertel was appointed an Episcopal Church deacon in 1865, and subsequently an Episcopalian presbyter.

Johannes Oertel served as the priest of St James Episcopal Church in Lenoir, North Carolina, from 1869 to 1874.

Made from over 400 pieces of chestnut, oak, poplar, holly, cherry, beech, and pine that were often carved during missionary trips to the Chapel of Rest in Happy Valley, North Carolina and the Chapel of Peace in Witnel, North Carolina, they are carved in Gothic perpendicular style, which was common from the 14th and 16th centuries.

Oertel carved other reredos and altar rails, but the one in St. James Episcopal Church is considered to be his most intricate and notable.

His altar painting there (1872) is layered oil on canvass with gold gilt, and depicts Jesus administering Holy Communion to male and female communicants.

He relocated a great deal as a priest, spending time in Florida, Maryland, St. Louis, Tennessee, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. Oertel was known primarily as a portrait painter.