The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Schreyer, Adolf

SCHREYER, shrī'ĕr, Adolf, German artist: b. Frankford-on-the-Main, 9 May 1828; d. Kronberg, Prussia, 29 July 1899. He studied at the Städel Institut, Frankfort, then at Stuttgart, Munich and Düsseldorf and supplemented this school instruction by wide travels in Europe and the East. In 1862 he became court-painter to the Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. He was a member of the academies of Antwerp and Rotterdam. Before 1870 he lived much at Paris; but after that year lived alternately there and at Kronberg. He was an animal painter, especially choosing the horse for his model and depicting it in vigorous action or, when held in rein, with pawing feet and distended nostril. He was, also, a follower of Fromentian in his love of Eastern subjects, particularly mounted Arabs dressed in brilliantly colored clothes, surrounded by a heated palpitating atmosphere. Some of his pictures are ‘Artillery attacked by Prussian Hussars’ (1854); ‘Wallachian Transportation Train in Rainy Weather,’ at Hamburg; ‘Charge of Artillery of the Imperial Guard’ (1865); ‘Horses of the Irregular Cossacks’ (1864) at Paris. His ‘Battle near Waghensel, in 1849’ (1858); ‘Battle of Komorn,’ ‘An Attack of Cavalry,’ and ‘Prince Thurn and Taxis wounded at Temisvár’ are among his best-known pictures, but are lodged in private galleries in Europe. Many canvases by Schreyer are to be found in the private collections of the United States, such as the Walters, the Vanderbilt, the Astor and the Huntington galleries. ‘The Watering Place’ is at the Corcoran Gallery at Washington.