The Last Farewell

Born in Voigstedt, Germany, Richard Lorenz first began sculpture classes at age 15, and later graduated from the Royal Academy of the Arts in Weimar. In 1886, after being hired as a horse painter for a panorama company, he immigrated to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he became the Director of the Wisconsin School of Design in 1888. A member of the Society of Western Artists, between 1887 and 1890 Lorenz traveled and sketched in a range of Western locales, including Colorado, Oregon, Texas and Arizona. One of the preeminent Western genre painters at the turn of the 20th century, Lorenz is known for his large, panoramic landscapes where he combines scale, narration and detail, such as in The Last Farewell. Lorenz was also a key figure in development of western painter Frank Tenney Johnson, who studied under Lorenz and is considered his most celebrated pupil.

In 1894, Lorenz exhibited the present work at the Pennsylvania Academy of The Fine Arts’ Sixty Fourth Annual Exhibition—a likely testament to the artist’s belief in its importance.