Grünewald, Guido (Triest ..-8-1882 - 1935 Vienna)

Etcher and aquatint etcher. Son of landscape painter and Daguerreotype photographer, retoucher and colorist Ferdinand Cornelius Grünewald (Dresden 30-08-1828 - 1890) who’d studied briefly at Dresden Academy. Grandson of painter and lithographer Heinrich Ferdinand Grünewald (Grossenhain 26-01-1802 - 18-08-1849 Dresden) who had been a student of Prof. Moritz Retzsch (1779-1857).

        In 1858 his father Ferdinand Cornelius Grünewald painted the portrait of his sister-in-law Bertha Beckmann (Cottbus 1815-1901 Leipzig).

Besides being a painter he worked as a retoucher and photographer in the Leipzig and Dresden firms (photographic portrait studios) of his family-in-law. In 1878 Cornelius Grünewald is mentioned as (jewish) photographer settled in Triest

        Bertha Henriette Ernestine Beckmann. Lived from 1839 in Dresden where she opened a photo portrait studio in 1840 as the first professional photographer in Europe, possibly in the world. In 1845 she married professional photographer Eduard Wehnert (1811-1847) where they also ran a photo studio. After being widowed in 1847, she travelled to New-York 1849-51 where she founded her own studio. After returning to Germany she renewed her business in Leipzig where she worked until 1883. The business in New-York was transferred to her brother Rudolph Julius Arnold Beckman (b. Cottbus 11-11-1830) who after his return to Germany would marry Oline Adolphine Grünewald (Dresden 24-09-1838)  sister of Ferdinand Cornelius Grünewald. 

        While living in New York, notable subjects such as America’s 13. President Millard Fillmore (1800-1874), ambassadors, and other politicians came to her to be photographed. Upon returning to her Leipzig study, she became the first in her city to begin working with nude photography. She also added a list of famous individuals to her photographic portfolio upon returning to her home city. These individuals included Clara Schumann, Johannes Brahms, Franz Dominic Grassi, Karl Heine and many others. In addition, Beckmann has been credited with some of the very first architectural photographs of Leipzig (1855–1860), which documented the city and its features before some were destroyed, such as Peter's Gate (1860).

Guido Grünewald, is known to have had one daughter, Charlotte Plochberger-Grünewald. Although he is nowhere mentioned as an artist it is said he studied in Vienna art academy but never was able to live from his art until he decided at age 40 (..around 1921) to become a full time artist. He became interested in the graphic arts, especially copper-plate etching, which involves not only etching each color plate by hand, but also reproducing each print on a hand press.He did mostly animal etchings, especially cats. Living in the suburbs, he always had his house and garden full of kittens.

Some of his works (among them an etching of a sleeping kitten) were displayed and sold in New-York Robertson-Deschamps Gallery. A batch of his etchings, cat studies, had found its way to the gallery in New-York (bought or commissioned) where it caught Lionel Charles Probert’s fancy. Probert he was head of the Washington Bureau of the Associated Press and Vice President of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O). In 1933 he acted as official in public relations and advertisement when he was enthralled with Gruenwald’s sketching. 

Probert gained permission to use the picture and was later credited for the advertisement, and thus began the popular character that riders began to “yarn” for.

In 1933 new fast and airconditioned trains were introduced on the New-York - St. Louis line: “The Sportsman” and “The flying Virginian”. Chessie, as the sleeping kitten lovingly became known, became the C&O symbol and mascotte serving for half a century until 1986. Several family members (Nip, Tuk, {Peak) were added and used in countless campaigns, advertisements and merchandised as  postcards, calendars etc..     

July 2022 an etching was found of a (mirrored) Rembrand (1606-1669) self-portrait. This portrait is dated 1655 when Rembrandt was 49, and is kept since 1783 in Vienna “Kunsthistorisches Museum”.  

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