The Cloister (of St. Francis at Assisi)

Julius Rolshoven is usually celebrated for his paintings of New Mexico, but this work, painted in Italy, speaks of his forte in illustrating a spiritual connection with a specific site and moment in time. The view is of the arcaded, vaulted courtyard in the cloister of the Church of St. Francis of Assisi. The scene is peaceful, if not tinged with a nuance of mysticism. He achieves this with his perspicacious interpretation of the sunlight reflecting off the weathered stones and trees. Following a path from the left, in the distance is a worn fresco depicting the body of Christ and mourners. Other religious symbols are more subtle; Rolshoven included two crosses in his cloister scene, one on the left wall, painted in grey, the other on the right, but free-standing in the garden. One must look for a time before the painting to find the crosses, symbolic of the path to spiritual fulfillment in life.

Julius Rolshoven first worked in his father’s Detroit jewelry business at age fourteen. Family history relates that the Rolshovens were goldsmiths for over 600 years in Germany near the Cologne Cathedral, and Julius was to follow in this tradition by learning the trade. But desirous to become a painter, after a brief struggle with his father, he was sent to art school at New York’s Cooper Union. After one year there, he left for Germany, attending first the Düsseldorf Art Academy, next in 1878 at the Munich Royal Academy.  One year later he visited Italy, stopping in Venice and Florence to take classes. In 1889, he went to Paris and studied at the Académie Julian, where he won a silver medal for a self-portrait in pastel—rare for an American.

He lived much of life as an expatriate. Aside from Germany, France, Italy, and Tunisia, Rolshoven and his first wife lived in London in the 1890s, where he enjoyed a successful practice painting portraits. In 1902, Rolshoven settled in Florence and later purchased a dilapidated castle called the Devil’s Tower (Il Castello del Diavolo). Reminiscent of his romantic spirit, he restored the Florentine castle and resided there until the onset of World War I, when he moved back to the United States. In 1917, he became a member of the Taos Society of Artists. But always feeling a tug at his heart from his beloved Italy, Rolshoven returned to Europe after the War, occasionally traveling back to the United States to visit family. He died suddenly during a transatlantic crossing, and was mourned "As a man, an artist, a teacher and a philosopher, as a critic and a conversationalist, Mr. Rolshoven Is one of God’s noblemen." [Bruce T. Ellis and Paul A. F. Walter (Ed), El Palacio, vol 4, January 1, 1917, Museum of New Mexico, p. 79].

Sally Metzler Ph.D., Director of the Art Collection

For more on this work, see: Union League Club of Chicago Art Collection, M. Richter; W. Greenhouse, Union League Club of Chicago, Chicago, 2003, p. 212