Alexandre
and Jean Rachmiel
Jean Rachmiel (1871-1954)
Born Haverstraw-on-Hudson, New York in 1871, Jean Rachmiel would
become the "American Millet." Jean was trained in drawing
and painting by his father, landscape painter Alexandre Rachmiel.
At age 16, Jean studied at the Art Students League in New York
City under Geroge de Forest Brush. In 1890 he went to Paris where
he studied under Jules LeFebvre and later at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts
under Leon Bonnat.
In school, Rachmiel
excelled as a figure painter but preferred to paint scenes of
Champagne and the peasants who resided there. Jean exhibited
annually from 1898 on and was awarded the Salon gold medal in
1910 for a painting entitled "Le Braconnier."
Jean Rachmiel exhibited at the Syracuse Museum of Fine Art in
1902 and decorated the Corcoran Art Gallery with his father between
1903 and 1905. In 1917, he worked as a supply officer in Marseilles
with the US Shipping Board and French Commission where he helped
recover works of art stolen by the Nazis. Jean contined to paint
until he died in Detroit, Michigan in 1954.
Alexandre Rachmiel (1835 -1918)
Born in Alsace-Lorraine France in 1835, Alexandre Rachmiel was
fellow student of Jean-Jacques Henner. Rachmiel became a fabric
pattern designer while he continued to develop as a painter.
Following the start of the Franco-Prussian War, Alexandre found
it necessary to immigrate to America in 1870. Arriving in New
York, Alexandre soon met and married Sarah Parker Scott a widow
with four daughters. The family settled in Haverstraw-on-Hudson
and soon after a happy addition was made. A son Jean Rachmiel,
who would follow in his father's artistic footsteps, was born
in May of 1871.
Alexandre schooled
his son in drawing and painting until he sent Jean to New York
to study at the Art Students League at the age of 16. Throughout
these years, Alexandre continued to paint. In 1895 , he joined
his son in Paris, where Jean was studying with Bonnat at the
L'Ecole des Beaux-Arts. They shared a studio together from 1895
- 1902. Alexandre returned to the United States and settled in
California from 1901-1902 and again in 1906. From 1903-1905,
both father and son worked in Washington D.C. decorating the
Corocoran Art Gallery.
Best known for his landscape paintings, someone once commented
that "Alexandre says he has a quiet conversations with the
trees, and I think I believe he has such a way of giving a tree
a distinct personality." Rachmiel painted in Philadelphia,
Pasadena, Laguna, and Santa Barbara before he died at Vincennes,
near Paris, in 1918.
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