Rudolph F. Ingerle was born April 14, 1879, in Vienna, Austria, then the political and cultural center of eastern Europe. He came from a noble family of Moravia, an eastern, mountainous section of the Hapsburg dominion that is now in Czechoslovakia. In later years he would recall how he loved to visit his Moravian grandparents as a child, for the local scenery was unforgettable beautiful and the native dress worn by the peasants was more colorful that anything he had ever seen.

Rudolph came to the United States with his parents when he was twelve years old.1 They initially lived in the farming community of Burlington, Wisconsin, but soon thereafter settled in Chicago where young Rudolph had the opportunity to attend Schmidt's Art Academy and later the Art Institute. He studied and sketched the paintings in the Institute's museum collection and later in life advocated such careful observation of works of art as the best approach to becoming a great artist.2

Though Ingerle must have loved his native land very dearly all his life, he strongly believed that any artist-immigrant to American should paint only American subjects. Accordingly he allied himself with T. C. Steele and others in forming the Indiana School of painting in Brown County. He switched allegiance to the Ozark School which developed shortly thereafter, but about 1920, Ingerle decided that he would like to see the Great Smoky Mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee.3 He found the area so soul-satisfying that after his initial visit he returned several months of each year for the rest of his life. He often based himself at Bryson City on the Tuckaseegee River. Ingerle felt that he had found in the Smokies "the grandest people in the world; the finest Americans in the country."4 His landscapes of the area as well as his penetrating character studies of the mountain fold earned him the appellation, "Painter of the Smokies."

North Carolinians took a tremendous amount of regional pride in Ingerle's work and in the Chicago artist himself who came to paint their state each spring. He was invited to show his paintings in one-man exhibitions at the Mint Museum in Charlotte in 1937 and 1944, at the Hickory Museum in 19454 and at the Fryemont Inn in Bryson City in 1937. These exhibits were glowingly reviewed in the local press with such words as "colorful" and "inspirational." Paul Gilbert, art critic of the Herald American may have had "Morn on the Tuckaseegee" in mind when he wrote:

Rudolph Ingerle paints with an exquisite finish that makes of each canvas sic a brilliant composition. No one could mistake the richness and depth of color, the suave flow of the pattern, or the intriguing distinction of the detail. The sunshine on distant hills is a favorite theme of Mr. Ingerle and one never tires watching for that warm glow beyond the chill shadows of the foreground. It breaks like an anthem over the hills. . . It is difficult to think off-hand of another artist who is succeeding as well in this type of painting as he.5

When he was not in the Smoky Mountains Ingerle was most likely to be in Chicago. He made his home and studio at 339 Laurel Avenue in the suburb of Highland Park. Ingerle participated in many local artists' organizations, including the North Shore Art League, the Municipal Art League of Chicago and the Bohemian Art Club. For twelve years he was treasurer of the Chicago Society of Artists and for two years its president.6

Ingerle died on October 20, 1950, and was honored with a memorial exhibition at the Chicago Galleries Association. His widow Marie and his friend and director of the Association, Harry Engle, selected the seventeen pictures which were exhibited from among those which were in Ingerle's studio when he died. C. J. Bulliet in reviewing the show for Art Digest singled out "Moonlight in the Smokies" for it "exerts on the visitor something of the awe of a cathedral."7

Ingerle did respond with awe and reverence to the Great Smoky Mountains, and his paintings are a legacy to a way of life which has all but vanished, and to a landscape which fortunately remains as beautiful as it was when Rudolph Ingerle first saw it. Thanks to his personal efforts as well as many others, the Great Smoky Mountains became a national park.

1C. J. Bulliet, "Artists of Chicago, Past and Present," The Chicago Daily News, July 27, 1935.

2Edna Sellroe, "Rudolph F. Ingerle - Famous Painter of Landscapes and Character Studies of Mountaineers," Artistry, December 1937, p. 2.

3"Mint is Exhibiting Ingerle Paintings."

4Sellroe, p. 3.

5Flyer in Ingerle papers belonging to the artist's grandson, Jay N. Ingerle.

6Bulliet.

7C. J. Bulliet, "Art in Chicago," Art Digest, Vol. 25, no. 10, February 15, 1951.

Cynthia Seibels
Copyright 1990 Robert M. Hicklin Jr., Inc.

Biography courtesy of The Charleston Renaissance Gallery, www.antiquesandfineart.com/charleston