# Johannes Adam Simon Oertel

Johannes Adam Simon Oertel (3 November 1823 in Fürth, Bavaria – 9 December 1909) was a German-American Episcopal clergyman and artist.

## Early life and education

Oertel studied art in Germany at Nuremberg and Munich.

## Career

After his education in Nuremberg and Munich, Oertel began engraving, which he continued until 1848. In 1849, he relocated to the United States and taught briefly in Newark, New Jersey. After his marriage, he engraved plates for bank notes, painted portraits, and colored photographs.
In 1857, Oertel was elected an associate of the National Academy of Design in New York City.
In 1857, Oertel moved to Madison, New Jersey, where he painted Lament of the Fallen Spirits and Redemption. Around this time, he was invited to assist in preparing new decorations for the new United States Capitol that was then under construction in Washington, D.C.
In 1861, he transferred his studio to Westerly, Rhode Island, where he painted Father Time and his Family and The Final Harvest (1862), The Dispensation of the Promise and the Law (including 150 figures, 1863), Walk to Emmaus, The Walk to Gethsemane, Easter Morning, Magdalen at the Sepulchre, The Rock of Ages, and others (1868).
His painting Rock of Ages became enormously popular and was reproduced in millions of photographs and chromolithographs and sold in both the U.S. and England.

### American Civil War

During the American Civil War, Oertel accompanied the Army of Virginia under General Burnside for several months in 1862. His Virginia Turnpike and other landscapes were the fruit of his brief military experience. He painted some historical battle scenes, including one of the American Revolutionary War's Battle of Sullivan's Island, and some illustrations for Harper's Weekly, including a cover for the magazine's November 15, 1864 issue, Convalescent Soldiers Passing through Washington, DC, to Re-join their Units and The Union Scout.
While residing in Westerly, Rhode Island, Oertel was appointed an Episcopal Church deacon in 1865, and subsequently an Episcopalian presbyter. He then confined himself almost entirely to the domain of Christian art, painting pictures that he presented to churches in Glen Cove, New York, New York City, Washington, D.C., North Carolina, and elsewhere.
Oertel was in Washington, D.C., during the funeral of President Abraham Lincoln on April 19, 1865, and wrote an account of it.

### St James Episcopal Church

The Rev. Johannes Oertel served as the priest of St James Episcopal Church in Lenoir, North Carolina, from 1869 to 1874. He was one of the first in the valley to offer a school for African American children, and offered religious services to those recently freed from slavery, including baptism, confirmation, marriage and funeral rites.
The reredos in front of the church is an outstanding example of Oertel's woodworking skills. Made from over 400 pieces of chestnut, oak, poplar, holly, cherry, beech, and pine that were often carved during missionary trips to the Chapel of Rest in Happy Valley, North Carolina and the Chapel of Peace in Witnel, North Carolina, they are carved in Gothic perpendicular style, which was common from the 14th and 16th centuries. Oertel carved other reredos and altar rails, but the one in St. James Episcopal Church is considered to be his most intricate and notable. His altar painting there (1872) is layered oil on canvass with gold gilt, and depicts Jesus administering Holy Communion to male and female communicants.
While at St. James, friends in New York donated to Oertel a 100-year-old pump organ from Christ Episcopal Church in Tarrytown, New York. The organ, dating to about 1770, was the first instrument to enhance the service in Lenoir. Oertel rebuilt the damaged organ, making new pipes, and a new wind chest and bellows. He then carved an illuminated case for the organ works.
By the main church door of the church is Father Time and His Family, (1862, charcoal and pen on paper), which was completed in Westerly, Rhode Island. It depicts Father Time, his wife (the year), and their children (the months). Each child carries an item from the Cornucopia representative of their respective month.
A collection of Oertel's art is held by the church, and includes: The Wandering Jew (1902?, oil on canvas); Capturing Wild Horses (print); Founded Upon a Rock (1900, oil on canvas); Rock of Ages (offset lithography), Man Rowing Out on the Sea of Life With Christ as Pilot (1880, oil on canvas), In Memorium (between 1880 and 1900, oil on canvas board), Christian Hope (1867, oil on canvas), Head of St Paul (oil on canvas, unknown date), Expulsion from the Garden of Eden (1893, oil on canvas), Prophecy of Balaam (1891, monochrome oil on canvas), The Four Evangelists (1884, monochrome oil on canvas), Lament of the Fallen Spirits (1850, oil on canvas), Mary Magdalene at the Cross (ca 1902, oil on canvas), The Good Shepherd (1878, oil on canvas), The Prophet Jeremiah (oil on canvas, unknown date); The King of Truth; (1903, oil on canvas), The Prophet Joel"; The Prophet Ezekiel, The Prophet Isaiah, The Unknown Prophet, and The Dispensation of Promise and the Law (1864-1865, chalk and ink on linen-backed paper).
Oertel had charge of two parishes, both located in Lenoir, North Carolina, until 1876. He relocated a great deal as a priest, spending time in Florida, Maryland, St. Louis, Tennessee, Virginia, and Washington, D.C.

### Portrait painter

Oertel was known primarily as a portrait painter. He often left the church in Lenoir, North Carolina, to go north to earn money by painting portraits. Many of his head and bust portraits were popular after the Civil War. He painted portraits for a number of prosperous clients in New England. He painted a portrait of the mayor of Providence, Rhode Island, Thomas A. Doyle as a young man.
Oertel is completed a painting of Paul the Apostle, which is held today by St. James Episcopal Church and depicts St. Paul as weary but stern.

### Academia

Oertel was an instructor of art at Washington University in St. Louis from 1889 to 1891. He spent the final 18 years of his life in a suburb of Washington, D.C., where he completed many religious paintings and wood carvings. He painted a series of four large pictures, The Plan of Redemption, which he presented to Sewanee in Tennessee, which is now the University of the South. Oertel's last major work was in 1906–07, when he painted and designed the new woodwork for the altarpiece of the Cathedral at Quincy, Illinois.

## Personal life

In 1851, Oertel married Julia Adelaide Torrey, and they had four children.

## Death

Oertel died on December 9, 1909, in Vienna, Virginia, where he was then living with one of his sons. He is buried in Flint Hill Cemetery in Oakton, Virginia. Collections of his papers are held by the libraries of George Washington University in Washington, D.C., and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.