William Frederic Ritschel, also known as Wilhelm Frederick Ritschel, was a California impressionist painter who was born in Nuremberg, Germany on July 11, 1864.
Germany and New York
After completing his education at a regional Gymnasium and Industrial School, Wilhelm left an apprenticeship as a lithographer and served from 1883 to 1887 in the Imperial German Navy where he began to paint and decorate large seashells, one of which was presented to England's future King Edward VII. As the nephew of Ernest Ritschel, a German sculptor and founder of the Dresden Art School, he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich, under Karl Raupp and Wilhelm von Kaulbach between 1888 and 1894 and became a member of the Kunstverein München. His seascapes and studies of horses were exhibited throughout Germany and in Paris. Responding to an invitation from his physician-cousin, he sailed in November 1895 to New York City. According to the U.S. Census in June 1900 he was a widower, artist, and resident of Suffolk County, New York. Later that year he married Bella "Zora" Hollingsworth, a Texas-born widow who was ten years younger, and moved to Manhattan. On June 16, 1904 he became a naturalized citizen and visited Europe in the succeeding years, including Norway, France, and the Netherlands. Until the early 1930s New York remained an important venue for the exhibition and sale of his paintings. One of his earliest shows was in 1901 at the Currier Art Gallery; that same year he was elected member of the Salmagundi Club, where he exhibited for almost 40 years. He was awarded the Club's Honorable Mention in 1912 and the Isidor Medal in 1923. He was a frequent contributor to the National Academy of Design where he was elected an Associate in 1910 and a National Academician in 1914 and where he received the Carnegie Prize, two Honorable Mentions, and on an unprecedented three occasions the Ranger Fund Prize.
Career in California
He spent his first summer near Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, in 1911. Six years later he purchased a "seasonal cottage" in the nearby Carmel Highlands and in 1919 began construction on his famous stone castle or "eagle's nest" in the Highlands. The U.S. Census in January 1920 still recorded his official residence as Manhattan. According to his artist-friend Jennie V. Cannon, he occupied the castle as his permanent home in the spring of 1921. He exhibited at the Carmel Arts and Crafts Club between 1913 and 1924 and continued as a frequent exhibiting member for more than two decades at the Carmel Art Association, where he received numerous awards and served as president and on the board of directors. In 1914 he met on several occasions with William Merritt Chase, who was teaching a summer class in Carmel. Two years later he volunteered to design and paint sets for the local Forest Theater. His seascapes of the California coast and his scenes from his trips to the South Seas were immensely popular in commercial galleries throughout the United States and frequently sold for record prices. He married his third wife, the sculptress Nora Havel, in 1930. Ritschel died on March 11, 1949 in his Carmel Highlands studio-home.
