| Title |
Fenderich, Charles |
| Alternate title |
Fendrich, Carolus |
|
Faendrich, Charles |
| Date |
February 10, 1805-March 29, 1889 |
| Description |
Charles Fenderich, the eminent mid-19th century portrait lithographer of American statesmen trained by Zurich lithographer
Joseph Brodtmann, born February 10, 1805 in Laufenburg, Switzerland, worked in Philadelphia in the 1830s. In Paris by 1830,
Fenderich worked for premier French lithographer Godefroy Engelmann until April 1831 when the Fenderich family emigrated to
the United States due to financial troubles. Shortly thereafter, the family settled in Philadelphia.
|
|
An experienced designer and pressman, Fenderich found employment in Philadelphia with Childs & Inman at 37 North Fourth Street
by 1832. Fenderich designed mostly commercial and ephemeral prints, including city views, advertisements and certificates,
for the firm. By about 1833, he worked with fellow Swiss lithographer John Caspar Wild producing lithographs with the imprint
"Fenderich & Wild's Lithographic Press," at 215 Callowhill Street. The short-lived partnership dissolved when Wild relocated
to Cincinnati, Ohio in 1834. Fenderich continued to operate the press in Philadelphia, where in 1837 he is listed at La Grange
Place, an alley west of North Second Street. The addresses "No. 95 North 3rd Street" and the "corner of Vine and 3rd Streets"
are also associated with Fenderich, but it is unclear if he lived or worked at these properties.
|
|
Fenderich moved to Washington D.C. by October 1837 and capitalized on his experience, talent and the demand for portraits
of American statesmen. He planned to publish by subscription Fenderich's Port Folio of Living American Statesmen, and contributed
portrait drawings to The United States Magazine and Democratic Review. Though his plans to publish by subscription did not
succeed, he created approximately ninety-four portrait lithographs in Washington by 1848, the earliest of which were published
by Lehman & Duval in Philadelphia.
|
|
On December 11, 1841, Fenderich married Anna Mills, the fourth daughter of architect Robert Mills. By 1849, he had moved west
to California and held a share in a newly laid-out town, Eliza City. A fellow traveler's diary described him as a bachelor.
Fenderich eventually resettled in San Francisco, where he was listed as an artist in city directories as late as 1887. He
died on March 29, 1889.
|
| Is part of |
Philadelphia on Stone Biographical Dictionary of Lithographers |
| References |
See Childs & Inman; Fenderich & Wild; Lehman & Duval; and Wild, John Caspar. |
| Call number |
Philadelphia on Stone Biographical Dictionary of Lithographers |
| Bibliographic citation |
Census 1840, 1860, 1880 |
|
Daily National Intelligencer, December 16, 1841 |
|
Groce & Wallace, 222 |
|
Parker and Kaplan, Charles Fenderich Lithographer of American Statesmen: A Catalog of His Work (Washington: Library of Congress,
1959).
|
|
Peters, 185-186 |
|
Philadelphia City Directory, 1837 |
|
San Francisco Bulletin, March 30, 1889 |
|
San Francisco City Directories, 1856-1887 (intermittently) |
