Charles Frederick William Mielatz

Background

Charles Frederick William Mielatz was born on May 24, 1860, in Breddin, Germany. He was the son of Charles and Wilhelmine (Wolff) Mielatz.

Education

Mielatz came to America at the age of six, attended the schools of Chicago, and studied drawing at the Chicago School of Design and Painting with Frederic Rondel, the elder.

Career

About 1880, Mielatz went to New York and thence to Newport, where he was employed with the United States engineer corps for about five years. Active as an etcher in the days of the New York Etching Club, of which he was secretary for a number of years, he was also a prominent figure in the revival of original etching which set in about the turn of the century. He formed a link between the older and the younger men and remained one of the latter. His influence on etching was exerted both through his work and through his teaching at the National Academy, of which he became an associate member. A tireless experimenter, he advanced steadily and did some of his best work in his later days. His "Georgian Courts" series, among his best prints, were of a freedom, even vivaciousness, quite in contrast to the "firm, virile, lean, even ascetic" line which James G. Huneker found in his etchings. The definiteness in treatment which Huneker had in mind appeared especially in his scenes in New York, and this fact may serve to illustrate his aim to select the medium and handling best suited to the particular problem on hand. In three series of views, in aquatint, lithography, and monotype, respectively, done for the Society of Iconophiles, Mielatz showed his judgment in choosing the proper medium and adapting himself to it. With a rich command of resources, subordinating the craft to the purpose, he occasionally combined various accessories of the etching process to gain results. He was his own printer and knew also the effect of variation in shades of ink. Technical problems and difficulties absorbed him, and he experimented in color-printing. Generally, when he departed from black-and-white, he applied color by way of suggestion, or at most in flat tints, but in his remarkable plate after "Woman and Macaws, " by George B. Luks, over which he labored long, he strove for complete color rendition. The technical aspect of his plates makes perhaps the most immediate claim on the interest of students of prints.

He was held mainly by the interesting locality or structure, not by the general sweep of urban view, and such aspects of the city he presented with a sure eye for effect and for the spirit of old New York. Much that he showed might easily be passed unnoticed; even the familiar was seen with a freshness of view that gave his work an air of novelty. When he placed the old "Poe Cottage" in a setting of sombre night, E. C. Stedman avowed that he had caught some of "the quality of Poe's own mood and utterance. " His plates include pictures of tarpon fishing and of yacht races, which showed swing of action, but as one writer pointed out, he was probably "best in static themes. "

Achievements

• Mielatz was an early practitioner of multi-plate color etchings in the United States, and is presumed to have been influenced by the color print work of Mary Cassatt. In 1906, he succeeded James David Smillie as the etching teacher at the National Academy.

Works

• book

  • John Wellborn Root : a study of his life and work.

Membership

a member of the New York Etching Club, the Brooklyn Society of Etchers, an associate member of the National Academy of Design

Personality

Mielatz was honest always in his intentions and in his work. His subjects were invariably American, and while he did at times seek them outside of Manhattan, it was with that city's picturesqueness that he was particularly identified and to which he gave most of his effort.

Connections

Mielatz married Mary Stuart McKinney on February 25, 1903.

Father:

Charles Mielatz

Mother:

Wilhelmine (Wolff) Mielatz

Wife:

Mary Stuart McKinney