January 2017 Exhibition link
John Rummell (American, 1861-1942) noted landscape & portrait painter, printmaker, lecturer, teacher and writer from Buffalo, New York. Rummell was born in Springville, NY to Frank X. Rummell and Eliza (née Fiesel). Rummell received his general education in the Buffalo schools and graduated from Central High School in Buffalo. He went to Emerson College of Oratory, Boston, MA, and studied art with several acclaimed artists to include, landscape painting for two years with Lemuel B.C. Josephs, John F. Carlson for two years, portaiture and figurative painting with Frank Vincent Du Mond, figure drawing with Georg B. Bridgman, and also with Carl Ahrens.
Rummell was a member of the Buffalo Society of Artists and was treasurer and financial secretary for three years, vice president for one year, and was also a member of the American Artists Professional League. He exhibited in numerous exhibitions across the United States to include; the Buffalo Society of Artists at the Albright Gallery in Buffalo (1917-19, 1921 Prizes, 1931, 1934 Prize), the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia (1921), the Art Institute of Chicago, the Arnot Gallery, Elmira, NY, Public Library, Binghamton, NY, Syracuse Museum of Fine Arts and the Memorial Art Gallery in Rochester, NY, winning many honors over the course of his career to include; A Fellowship Prize of $50 for the painting "The Heralding of Autumn", exhibited with the BSA in 1921 and frequent Honorable Mention of paintings exhibited with the same.
Rummell taught art for several years in his own landscape painting school in Buffalo and was also an art lecturer at the Albright Art Gallery and elsewhere. In addition, Rummell was a dramatic reader and teacher of vocal and pantomimic expression. As a reader, he made a specialty of the English classics, having besides many other things, ten Shakesperean dramas in his reperatory. From 1907-1914, he opened a school of the speech arts, elocution, oratory, conversation, and drama in Buffalo, and also taught English & French in New York and Philadelphia. As a writer, he is known for his book, Aims and Ideals of Representative American Painters (1901). Rummell painted a landscape scene for the Buffalo Museum of Science titled "Clouds" but the piece has been listed as 'lost'. His works can be found in many private, public and museum collections nationwide and abroad. Rummell died in 1942 and is buried in Forest Lawn Cemetery, Buffalo, NY.
(Written by Mark Strong of Meibohm Fine Arts, Inc., East Aurora, NY, meibohmfinearts.com, sources: Furnished upon request.)
