The Young Craftsman, 1917

Odon Wagner Gallery, Toronto Private Collection, Toronto

Tobias Edward Rosenthal was born in New Haven, Connecticut in 1848. Rosenthal and his family relocated to San Francisco in 1855, where he developed an early interest in art and had such natural ability that his teacher, Fortunate Arriola, taught him for free. Rosenthal’s parents operated a tailor shop and were eventually able to save enough money to send the artist to the Royal Academy in Munich. While at the renowned academy he developed a traditional realistic style that focused on domestic and romantic subjects. Rosenthal returned to San Francisco in 1871. The artist was very popular and he received many commissions, however San Francisco eventually lost its appeal and he returned to Munich where he stayed until his death. Painted the year the artist died, “The Young Craftsmen” echoes one of Rosenthal’s best known paintings, “His Madonna”, which was painted the previous year. The similarities seem endless from the likeness of the young boy working in his white shirt with a red handkerchief stuffed into his blue apron to his wooden workbench with his carving tools splayed in front of him and wood shavings littering the floor. However, where “His Madonna” positions the viewer at a more distanced vantage point, “The Young Craftsmen” creates a more intimate portrait of the young subject by bringing the viewer in closer to the scene. The boy’s face is turned slightly toward the viewer which invites us into a more personal connection to the sitter.