Devils Lake inter-ocean and Devils Lake free press. (Devils Lake, Ramsey County, N.D.) 1905-1909, 1907-04-19
CAREER OF A. PICTURE.
brock Of Ages" Went Into Homes the
II :>& World Round. 81 u VI

brock Of Ages" Went Into Homes the
u s..% World Round. V 49,
1.-THE Rock of that world IA
nous picture, was painted by the Rev.
Johannes A. Oertel. The artist, a ma
tive Of Bavaria, who came to America
In 1s4S, settling in Newark, N. j., first
sketched it in the album Of young
girl living in Westerly. r.. T.. 1t i'm
pressed all who saw 1t, suggesting a
small painting of the subject in oil,
which he exhibited at the National
Academy of Design, New York. This
caught the keen eye Of al, Broadway
dealer, who, realizing its5commercial
value, induced Mr.. OerteIato make a
large painting, from which photo
graphs were struck Oh, and one of
these falling into the hands of Mr.
James Of Providence, RI, he pur-
chased the right Of publishing all sub
sequent copies. t5S%
The painting was bought for $1,000
by Augustus Storrs, a Brooklyn mer-
chant, while the run upon the UNI
framed pictures, ten inches high, got
out by Mr.. James and selling for So
apiece, was unprecedented in the his
tory Of photography, the operators be-
ing unable to meet the demand and
dealers losing sales from insufficient
supply of copies.
Mr.. James next venture was chro-
molithograph made under his own SUI
pervision In Paris. Passing through
London on his way home, he sold three
Of these chromos for guineas to Mr..
Graves, the queens bookseller. Upon
his arrival In Liverpool a Geographic
order awaited him from that gentleman
for thirty additional copies, and on
reaching New York he was handed an
application from him for; the entire
edition. AZ:
Indeed, phenomenal as was the sale
Of this creation in America, it was
greater abroad. An English nobleman
hazards the assertion that in some one
Of its varied forms 1t Is to be found
in every palace and hovel in the is
land, and a traveller returning from
q IOOA VI luC WILL" CASld11uGu. Lie
picture haunts me. 1t follows me
wherever go. have seen 1t In Chile.
have seen it also in the Pyrenees."
Two years after the appearance of
the first photographs Mr.. James had
realized as his share of the profits $75,-
900. Mr. Oertel, too, was in receipt Of
a handsome income in royalties, and
With this assured support (haying pur-
sued his theological studies without as
sistance and been ordained, to- the
priesthood Of the Protestant Episcopal
church) he removed in 1867 to I.enoir,
in North Carolina, and took charge Of
a congregation impoverished by the
civil war $%
Two years later an unauthorized copy
of the Rock Of Ages was got out
by New York photographer
Mr.. Oertel's publisher sought protec-
ton from the law, and the$case was
carried into the lower and; supreme
courts Of the state. Scarcely had it
been decided in his favor, however,
when a Chicago artist made a similar
design. evading the law by the intro
duction Of a ship in the background
and the reversal of the female figure
This threw the copyright open. The
monopoly was wrested from it's owner
and the market flooded with pictures
Of every size and quality.
Thus as a financial venture terminal
ed the brilliant promise of the "Rock
Of Ages" ,+..-