Henry Vianden: 19 interesting facts

Heinrich Vianden, better known as Henry Vianden (July 9, 1814 – February 5, 1899), was a German American lithographer and engraver. He was nicked “The Bear” by his connections and is often considered as “father of Wisconsin art”.

Vianden was born in Poppelsdorf, today a quarter of Bonn. He was the deserted child of the ceramic painter Wilhelm Joseph Vianden (1788–1818) and his wife Anna Maria, née Weyh (1788–1866). When he was five years old, his father died. At the age of 14, Vianden started a goldsmith training and did his studies of arts at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Munich from 1838 to 1841. At first he exhibited in Cologne in 1844. Also in 1844, he ended his studies in Antwerp for one and a half year, where he after that worked once Frans-Andries Durlet. In 1845 he returned to Germany, where he lived at Große Brinkgasse 11 in Cologne. In November 1848 he married Magdalena Krüppel (b. 1811), daughter of a physician from Zülpich. They had four children, which anything died in their childhood. Together once Magdalena he left Germany in May 1849 and came to New York City upon July 4 of the thesame year. After a gruff stay, they moved to Wisconsin, where they stood close Burlington for a while, before they approved down in Milwaukee, and applied for US citizenship. His first exhibition in Milwaukee was in December 1849. In May 1950 they moved to a suburb, now share of Milwaukee, where he taught in his edit air school close Root Creek. He furthermore taught in his studio at 111 Mason Street, Milwaukee, and at Peter Engelmann’s German-English Academy, today University School of Milwaukee, as without difficulty as at the German, French, and English Academy of Mathilde Franziska Anneke. Carl von Marr, Robert Koehler, Frank Enders, Robert Schade and Susan Stuart Frackelton were students of him. On June 5, 1860, his wife Magdalena lonely him and returned to Germany. He applied for divorce on November 1861 and was divorced upon February 15, 1862. In 1867 he remarried the German Fredericka Wollenzien (1837–1897). They had no children. At the age of 85 he died near Milwaukee due to a pleurisy. He sold share of his land to the Forest Home Cemetery in his lifetime, and is buried there. His home was demolished in 1922.