Frederick Juengling

Background

Frederick was born on October 18, 1846 in Leipzig, Germany.

Education

Juengling attended the common schools in Leipzig, Germany. He was apprenticed to a printer but abandoned that trade for wood-engraving.

Career

In 1866 Frederick came to New York, where he worked first for Frank Leslie but later opened an engraving shop with several employees, making cuts for the American Agriculturist, the Fireside Companion, and other publications. An attempt to combine a printing office with his engraving establishment failed disastrously in the late seventies. In 1877, with the publication in Scribner's Monthly of his cuts after drawings by James E. Kelly, he took his place as a leader of the "new school" of American wood-engravers whose effort was to reproduce, rather than to "interpret, " the work of the artist. It was this school, condemned at first by such conservatives as W. J. Linton, which under the sponsorship of Scribner's Monthly, The Century, and Harper's, elevated American wood-engraving to the high level which it reached between 1876 and 1896.

In 1879 Juengling entered the Art Students' League, where his impetuosity and enthusiasm made him a favorite. He afterward became president of the League. His paintings and watercolors appeared in exhibitions, but were few because of his devotion to engraving. He also produced some excellent etchings.

After a vain trip to Carlsbad for treatment in the fall of 1887, he made a tour through Europe with his wife, and, returning to New York late in 1889, succumbed to a cold on the last day of the year.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The vision of Sir Launfal / by James Russell Lowell ; with illustrations by J.W. Alexander ... et al.

    (Physical description; ix, 85 p. : ill., port ; 33 cm. Not...)

Views

For Juengling to be at his best he needed subjects congenial to his own plain, rugged nature, such as the peasant scenes of Jean François Millet or the Negro subjects of his friend Alfred Kappes. Prettiness in art did not appeal to him. A butcher in his shop, a girl ironing clothes, a farmer with his pipe, an immigrant, these were subjects that he liked.

He fretted more than most engravers over the petty insistences of critics. Many of his blocks were greatly weakened by recutting due to such criticisms. His first proofs often contained more of the true nature of the original than the finished result. In beauty and exactness of line he could not compete with Cole, King, and some others, but his line had a peculiar charm and his beautiful stipple was purely his own.

Personality

His devotion to his work was absorbing. Life outside of his art meant little to him. It was difficult for his wife to drag him to an entertainment or even to meals. At the dining table he sometimes had a block propped up where he could study it. His nervous temperament and tendency to overwork lessened his resistance to the disease, diabetes, which caused his death.

Quotes from others about the person

• According to Koehler, Juengling became "one of the most impassioned advocates of individualism in wood-engraving".

Connections

He had a wife, Helen Juengling, and left no children.

Spouse:

Helen Juengling

coworker:

Frank Leslie