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.