Leopold Seyffert
Born in California, Missouri, and raised in Colorado and then Pittsburgh, his career brought him eventually to New York City, via Philadelphia and Chicago.
[1] In New York City, the dealer Macbeth established him as one of the leading portraitists of the 20th century and his over 500 portraits continue to decorate the galleries, rooms and halls of many of America's museums and institutions.
His subjects included Henry Clay Frick (Heinz History Center, Pittsburgh), Fritz Kreisler (National Portrait Gallery), Andrew Mellon (Choate School and BNY Mellon Collection), John Wanamaker (US Postal Museum), Edward T. Stotesbury (Stotesbury Collection), Elizabeth Arden, Samuel Gompers (New York Historical Society), John Graver Johnson (Corcoran Art Gallery), railroad financier Edward Brinton Smith (Private Collection), Charles Lindbergh and David Sarnoff.
Seyffert was recipient of a long string of prizes and honors given by the major American art organizations and museums, often for his non-commissioned work.
He lived, taught and painted in several historic cities and many of his sitters played a significant role in American history, particularly during the roaring 20s.
Leopold's earliest art exposure came from his briefly studying with an artist named La Salle but he also painted cakes in the local bakery and glass eyes for a taxidermist.
Starting in 1906 until 1913 he studied at the academy with Thomas Pollock Anschutz, William Merritt Chase, Cecilia Beaux and Hugh H. Breckenridge.
He summered in Seal Harbor, Maine, (photographed left) with group of Philadelphia artists and musicians where he began series of charcoal portraits of these personalities.
In December he was in a group exhibit at the Detroit Museum of Art with Karl Anderson, Hayley Lever and Ernest Lawson.
It included financiers, artists, musicians and writers living in Chicago at that time, such as Potter Palmer Jr., Frederick Stock, Albin Polasek, and Marshall Field, Jr.
In 1923 he won the Palmer Gold Medal, Art Institute of Chicago and later that year summered in Switzerland where his boys were attending boarding school.
That summer he visited with his family the home of Hans & Alice Kindler in Senlis, France, where they were all photographed by Man Ray.
More often however it was a group or company that commissioned a portrait for posterity and he painted some household names today like Heinz, Kraft, Taft, and Mellon.
He had a solo exhibition at Carson Pirie Scott in Chicago previously managed by Erwin S. Barrie and an article by Frederick Lowes appeared in All-Arts Magazine.
In 1931 he won the Isidor Medal at National Academy of Design and that summer he travelled to Hendaye, France, spending time with his family, Maurice Speiser (a longtime friend from Philadelphia) and Ernest Hemingway (right).
In 1953 while he was painting two of the National Gallery's (Washington, DC) founders, Rush and Samuel Kress, his wife Bobbi died.
He painted his last portrait of Frank Porter Graham and also during his last years a new model and companion, Ramona, lived with and cared for him until his death from esophageal cancer in Bound Brook, New Jersey, in 1956.
Chambers, Bruce: Leopold Seyffert, Retrospective Exhibit Catalog Essay, Berry-Hill Galleries, 1985 [1] 1921 Art Institute of Chicago Catalog [2] 1917 Group Exhibit at the Detroit Museum with Hayley Lever and Karl Anderson [3] Seyffert teaches at the School of Design for Women, Emily Sartain, Principal Philadelphia Evening Ledger 1917
