River Garden
1921
31 x 29 3/4 in. (78.7 x 75.6 cm)
Fritz Trautmann
United States
(Whitewater, Wisconsin, 1882 - November 11, 1971, Rochester, New York )
Object Type:
Painting
Medium and Support:
Oil on canvas
Credit Line:
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. William G. Staudenmaier
Accession Number:
1974.6
Location: Not currently on view
In River Garden, we see the two passions of Fritz Trautmann’s life: color and landscape architecture. In a letter to the painting’s donors, Trautmann wrote, “This is a corner of my River Road garden. I’ve made many gardens in my day, but this one gave me the most pleasure. It was built in the ruined foundation of a barn that burned many years ago. As I remember it there were thirteen different levels… It was located about midway between the old River Bend Inn and Balentine bridge [sic] on the east side of the Genesee River.”
Although he lived in the city of Rochester, Trautmann sought rural surroundings in the summer. He stayed in the house attached to this garden in the 1920s; by the early 1930s he purchased and refurbished an old farmhouse and its gardens on Canadice Lake.
[Gallery label text, 2010]