Johannes Adam Simon Oertel
Johannes Adam Simon Oertel (3 November 1823 in Fürth, Bavaria – 9 December 1909) was a German-American Episcopal clergyman and artist. Early life and education Oertel studied art in Germany at Nuremberg and Munich. Career After his education in Nuremberg and Munich, Oertel began engraving, which he continued until 1848. In 1849, he relocated to the United States and taught briefly in Newark, New Jersey. After his marriage, he engraved plates for bank notes, painted portraits, and colored photographs. In 1857, Oertel was elected an associate of the National Academy of Design in New York City. In 1857, Oertel moved to Madison, New Jersey, where he painted Lament of the Fallen Spirits and Redemption. Around this time, he was invited to assist in preparing new decorations for the new United States Capitol that was then under construction in Washington, D.C. In 1861, he transferred his studio to Westerly, Rhode Island, where he painted Father Time and his Family and The Final Harvest (1862), The Dispensation of the Promise and the Law (including 150 figures, 1863), Walk to Emmaus, The Walk to Gethsemane, Easter Morning, Magdalen at the Sepulchre, The Rock of Ages, and others (1868). His painting Rock of Ages