Background
Rolshoven, Julius was born in 1858 in Detroit, Michigan, United States. Son of Frederick and Maria Theresa Hubertina (Hellings) Rolshoven.
Rolshoven, Julius was born in 1858 in Detroit, Michigan, United States. Son of Frederick and Maria Theresa Hubertina (Hellings) Rolshoven.
Educated Cooper Union, New York, 1877, Plassman Academy, New New York Düsseldorf Academy, 1878, Munich, 1879-1882, Frank Duveneck class at Florence, 1883-1884, Paris, in Atelier Toney, Robert Fleury and Bouguereau, winter of 1888.
At 18 he went to New York City to study at the Cooper Union Art School, then the Düsseldorf Academy, then continued on to Munich, studying under the Kentucky-born artist Frank Duveneck in his Venice and Florence schools, becoming one of the "Duveneck Boys". After some years in Paris and London, Rolshoven decided to settle in Florence in 1902. In 1905, while he was drawing outdoors, he discovered a building that had maintained the old charm of a castle, called "Devil"s Castle" and belonged to the family Talani.
The artist was so enthusiastic of the environment that in 1907 he bought the property in state of disrepair.
By 1916 Rolshoven had settled in the American southwest, setting up a studio in Santa Fe"s Governor"s Palace. From 1920 until his death he moved back and forth among his three residences, Florence, Detroit and Santa Fe.
He died on shipboard in the Atlantic. "He lived for 40 years in Florence, Italy, his adopted home, re-converting a 900-year-old home, "Castello del Diavolo" into an estate so spendid that an impressed Italian government designated it as a national monument".
He was also an early member of the Taos Society of Artists.
Married Anna Eliza Chickering, March 10, 1887 (died 1897). Married second, Harriette Haynes Blazo, December, 1915.
