This work is no longer available.(American born France, 1824 - 1879)
Philadelphia Interior: Getting Ready for School
Oil on canvas, 32 x 40 inches
Signed and dated at lower right: “C. Schuessele/Philada. 1858.”
Label on stretcher verso (handwritten in pencil): “Lipschitz”
Label on stretcher verso (partially printed, handwritten in ink, fragmented): “April[?]”; “1858”; “for Sch[ool?]”
Exhibited (probably): “Thirty-fifth Annual Exhibition of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts”, 1858 as “Getting Ready for School”
About the Artist
(American born France, 1824 - 1879)
Born in Alsace, France, Christian Schuessele was a versatile artist, painting genre subjects, landscapes, and portraits as well as historical scenes. He also worked as a lithographer and taught drawing and painting. He studied in Paris with Paul Delaroche (1797-1856) and in the studio of Adolphe Yvon (1817-1893). Settling in Philadelphia in about 1848, Schussele supported himself by doing chromolithography while continuing to paint in his free time. He achieved recognition when his historical work Clear the Track (1854) was engraved by John Sartain (1808-1897), after which Schussele was able to concentrate exclusively on painting. He exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where he was a professor from 1868 to 1879. Thomas Eakins (1844-1916) was one of his students. He also exhibited at the Great Central Fair in Philadelphia in 1864, at the Boston Athenaeum in 1858 and 1868, and at the Brooklyn Art Association in 1872.
