Karl Stecher | |
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Born | |
Died | 27 December 1923 Wichita, Kansas, U.S | (aged 92)
Known for | Stained glass windows in Little Church Around the Corner |
Movement | Realism |
Karl Franz Stecher, also known as Charles F. Stecher or Stetcher (5 March 1831[1][2] - 27 December 1923) was a German painter.
Stecher first studied painting and music in Karlsruhe, Germany.[2] Afterwards he moved to Paris where he did figures for stained glass windows and painted watercolours.[2] Later in life Stecher claimed that in Paris he had been visited by and played organ for Napoleon III, and also had befriended Realist artists like Rosa Bonheur and Jean-François Millet.[3] In 1874 he moved to New York where he designed all the windows for Church of the Transfiguration in Manhattan.[2] Stecher appears to have worked for lithographic Schumacher & Ettlinger company. In 1885 a painting executed by Stecher, and designed by Theodore Schumacher became an object of a copyright lawsuit Schumacher v Schwencke.[4][5] 5 years before his death Stecher moved with his son to Wichita in Kansas, where he continued painting into his 90s.[6] In Wichita he made a reputation as a portrait artist, but also as a painting and book collector with wide interests.[3] He is buried in Old Mission Cemetery in Wichita.[1]