Frank Enders

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BORN: 1860, Milwaukee, WI

DIED: 1921, Milwaukee, WI

Frank Enders, was the son of immigrants and an important early Milwaukee painter and etcher in the Munich realist style. He studied at the Munich Academy and with Henry Vianden, prominent Milwaukee artist for whom Enders worked as a sign painter.

From 1879 to 1884, he studied in Munich at the Academy with Alois Gabl, historical and genre painter, and Wilhelm von Lindenschmidt, historical, landscape and genre artist.

In 1889, he toured in the West for several months, visiting Sioux Falls, South Dakota; Denver, Colorado; and San Juan, New Mexico. He painted depictions of adobe houses, Indian villages and ceremonies but expressed little approval of the Indian way of life. 
From 1891 to 1894, he did more travel, which included painting murals in St. Louis; spending time in Omaha, Nebraska; and working in Chicago and New York.

By 1894, he was back in Milwaukee, where he set up a studio at 55 Oneida Street and worked for the Northwest Panorama Company with Louis Kindt & Thomas Gardner on "The Battle of Vicksburg." He showed a strong relationship to the realistic and objective approach of the German painter, Wilhelm Leibl. Enders' work was more loose and less detailed with a subdued palette of brown and green earth tones.

His painting subjects included portraits, figures, and regional scenery often depicted the rustic and charming Wisconsin waterways and harbor scenes. including nearby Jones Island, where a fishing village was located. He also did a series of etchings of that village. 

He was a faculty member at the Milwaukee Art Students' League, specializing in copper etchings. Enders was a versatile artist who produced portraits, murals, etchings, genre paintings and still lifes. 

In 1901, Enders was one of the original founders of the Society of Milwaukee Artists, later known as Wisconsin Painters & Sculptors/Wisconsin Artists (WP&S) and today known as Wisconsin Visual Artists (WVA).

Frank Enders exhibited at the Milwaukee Public Library and Milwaukee Art Society Gallery and has featured exhibitions at UWM Art History Gallery, Charles Allis Art Museum, Museum of Wisconsin Art, and The Chazen.

Source: Peter Merrill, "German-American Artists in Early Milwaukee"

Source: Museum of Wisconsin Art