Charles Hoffbauer

Charles Hoffbauer was a prolific, French-born artist renowned for his historic murals and paintings, in addition to the impressionist New York City street scenes which brought him considerable success in America.

By Chelsea DeLay

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I. Biography

On June 28, 1875, Charles Hoffbauer was born in Paris, France; at the age of seventeen, the young artist enrolled at the École Nationale des Beaux-Arts, where his peers included Henri Matisse, Georges Rouault, and Albert Marquet.¹ Hoffbauer’s studies were interrupted when he was called to army duty in March 1896, and after spending eighteen months stationed in Falaise, Normandy, he returned to Paris to resume painting. In 1898, Hoffbauer’s first submission to the Paris Salon was awarded Honorable Mention, and the following year, he became the youngest artist to earn a Gold Medal and be deemed Hors Concours—a status he held for seven years.²

Hoffbauer’s artistic skill was rewarded again in 1902 when Revolt de Flamands won the Bourse de Voyage award, and the artist used the five-thousand-franc prize to fund a summer sketching trip to Italy in 1903.³ The drawings Hoffbauer produced during this visit inspired Triomphe d’un Condottiere¸ a work that was awarded the highest honor—the Prix du Salon—by the Paris Salon in 1906. The artist continued to travel over the next several years, producing work while visiting Milan, Rome, Cairo, Aswan, Athens, and Venice. However, the place that truly captured Hoffbauer’s attention, he had only seen in photographs: New York City. Images of Manhattan’s skyline captivated Hoffbauer and served as artistic inspiration throughout 1904; he produced a significant amount of studies and paintings featuring New York’s skyscrapers and metropolitan life, all without ever setting foot on American soil. American and European audiences alike were impressed by Hoffbauer’s vibrant cityscapes, which successfully reproduced the iconic scenery of the great city.

Hoffbauer made his first trans-Atlantic journey to the United States in 1909, arriving in New York on December 21. One year after his arrival, Hoffbauer met and befriended Roland Knoedler of Knoedler Galleries, who became the artist’s primary dealer in the United States. Two one-man exhibitions held at Knoedler Galleries in 1911 and 1912 garnered Hoffbauer significant acclaim with American audiences. In an excerpt from Knoedler’s 1912 exhibition catalogue, fellow artist Arthur Hoeber describes his admiration for Hoffbauer:

One feels he has caught the spirit of American progress; caught much of its practicalness[sic], with not a little of its vitality, for these pictures of our city are sui generis and they fairly exude American bigness and bustle, the sense of accomplishment despite great obstacles.⁴

Hoffbauer’s artistic career had several significant highlights in 1912: In addition to the success of his solo show at Knoedler Galleries, the artist chose to repaint Triomphe d’un Condottiere, a work that had earned him Prix du Salon six years earlier. The repainted piece was met with great success when it was exhibited that year at the Architectural League, and Hoffbauer’s audacious decision was rewarded with a commission for the Battle Abbey murals at the Confederate Memorial Institute at Richmond, Virginia.⁵ In 1914, Hoffbauer’s progress on the Battle Abbey murals was halted by World War I; the artist volunteered as a private and spent the next four years serving on the front and working as an official war artist.

He returned to the United States in 1919 and was able to complete the Battle Abbey murals one year later; the success of Hoffbauer’s depictions of Confederate leadership was so great that he was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal for the City of Richmond in 1925. Hoffbauer continued to produce work and exhibit throughout the 1920s: He accepted a mural commission for the State Capitol at Jefferson City in 1921 and also showed pieces at the Paris Salon and the Art Institute of Chicago.

Hoffbauer’s career took an interesting turn in 1935 after he watched Walt Disney’s Three Little Pigs, which inspired him to pursue film animation. He considered the United States to offer the greatest potential for success in this field, and in 1936, Hoffbauer made the decision to move to New York. The artist believed that there was an existing void in the realm of film animation that he could fill by dramatizing historical events.⁶ While this idea was turned down during a 1938 meeting with Walt Disney, the legendary film animator encouraged Hoffbauer to move to California and work for him. Hoffbauer accepted Disney’s offer and relocated to Hollywood in 1939, and two years later, on December 26, the artist became a naturalized American citizen.

The success Hoffbauer achieved as a muralist and painter during the 1940s and early 1950s was monumental: He was offered mural commissions from McCornack Hospital in Pasadena, the Citizens’ Committee for the Army and Navy, and the N.E. Mutual Life Insurance Company, and also participated in exhibitions at the Los Angeles Museum, California Palace of the Legion of Honor, and Stanford University. Hoffbauer left California in 1953 and settled in Rockport, Massachusetts, where he resided until his death in 1957.

II. Chronology

• 1875 Born June 28 in Paris, France
• 1893–6 Begins formal art training at the École National des Beaux-Arts in Paris
• 1896–7 Assigned to an infantry regiment in March, stationed at Falaise, Normandy, for training
• 1897 Discharged and returns to Paris; resumes painting and drawing
• 1898 Exhibits at the Paris Salon for the first time in the spring, awarded Honorable Mention
• 1899 Exhibits at the Paris Salon, becomes the youngest artist to become Hors Concours and win the Gold Medal
• 1900 Awarded the bronze medal at the 1900 Paris Exposition Universelle
• 1902 Exhibits Revolte des Flamandes, which is awarded the Prix Rosa Bonheur and receives the Bourse de Voyage, the French Government Traveling Scholarship
• 1903 Spends the summer in Italy
• 1904 Exhibits Coin de Bal at the Salon d’Automne in Paris
• 1905 Invited to exhibit in the 10th Annual Carnegie International in Pittsburgh
• 1906 Receives the Prix du Salon, the highest award in any category, at the Paris Salon; travels to England in October, stays in London for several months
• 1907 Visits Belgium and Holland in August; travels to Milan, Rome, and Cairo from October through December
• 1908 Visits Luxor, Aswan, Athens, Venice, and Rome during the early spring; two of his paintings, Revolte des Flamandes and Sur les toits, are shown in London and the Franco-British Exhibition
• 1909 Arrives in New York on December 21
• 1910 Befriends Roland Knoedler of Knoedler Galleries, who becomes the artist’s dealer in the United States; takes a fall sketching trip to the Adirondacks; travels to Boston in September
• 1911 Successful one-man exhibition at Knoedler Galleries in February; leaves for Paris to visit family in June, returns to New York in November
• 1912 Submits mural sketches to be considered for the Confederate Memorial Institute at Richmond, Virginia, which are approved; Hoffbauer accepts the contract on July 27; second one-man exhibition at Knoedler Galleries; elected a member of the Architectural League; travels to Paris during the summer; becomes a founding member of the Comité France-Amérique of the Académie Francaise on December 30
• 1913 In January, begins working on murals in the Confederate Memorial Institute
• 1914 Returns to France on August 8; enlists in the 274th Infantry Regiment as a private and is sent to the battlefield of the Marne
• 1915 Appointed official war artist and promoted to the rank of sergeant
• 1917 Earns the Cruix de Guerre for his bravery in the Battle of the Somme
• 1918 Goes on leave from January through March; studies and sketches in Padua, Florence, Pisa, and Siena
• 1919 Leaves Paris, arrives in New York City on April 25
• 1920 Completes the Battle Abbey murals in October
• 1921 Receives commission to paint mural in the State Capitol at Jefferson City, Missouri, along with other contributing artists, including Alexander Calder and N.C. Wyeth
• 1922 Hoffbauer’s father, Féodor, passes away in Paris
• 1924 The Musée de l’Armée purchases a group of Hoffbauer’s World War I drawings and watercolors
• 1925 On May 15, while in Paris, receives the Distinguished Service Medal for the City of Richmond for his mural in the Confederate Memorial Institute
• 1928 Awarded the Prix de l’Institute de France for Napoleon at Rivoli
• 1929 Exhibits work in the Mural Painters Exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago
• 1930 Marries Henrietta Brownell Lowry on June 17; accepts commission to decorate the Town Hall of Arras in France
• 1932 Hoffbauer’s mother passes away during the spring in Paris
• 1933 On January 18, elected member of the jury of the École National des Beaux-Arts
• 1935 Sees Walt Disney’s Three Little Pigs and becomes inspired to pursue film animation
• 1936 Leaves Paris and moves to New York to pursue a career in film animation
• 1937 Elected jury member of the Exposition Internationale, Paris
• 1938 Receives an honorary degree of Doctor of Fine Arts from the University of Richmond on April 29; meets Walt Disney on July 1 and pitches the idea to create animated films based on historical events; Disney turns him down, but recognizes Hoffbauer’s talent and recommends that he come to Hollywood
• 1939 Moves to Hollywood, California
• 1940 Hired by Walt Disney as a research artist; receives commission to paint eight historical murals in the N.E. Mutual Life Insurance Company in Boston
• 1941 Becomes a naturalized American citizen on December 26 in Los Angeles, California
• 1944 Paints a series of twelve panels for the McCornack Hospital, Pasadena
• 1947 Returns to Paris in May after more than eleven years’ absence; auctions the contents of his Paris studio on October 20
• 1949 Invited to exhibit sixty tempera works at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor in September; the exhibition travels to Stanford University in December
• 1950 Splits time between Los Angeles and San Francisco, where he has five one-man exhibitions
• 1952 Leaves California; briefly resides in Providence before settling in Boston
• 1953 Permanently settles in Rockport, Massachusetts; unanimously elected Corresponding Member of the Institut de France on December 16
• 1957 Passes away on July 26

III. Collections

• Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
• Belfry & Town Hall, Arras, France
• Confederate Memorial Institute, Richmond, VA
• House of Representatives, Jefferson City, MO
• Musée du Luxembourg, Paris, France
• Musées des Beaux-Arts de Rouen, Rouen, France
• Museum of the City of Paris, France
• Please Touch Museum, Memorial Hall, Fairmount Park, PA
• Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.
• The State Hermitage, Russia
• Virginia Historical Society, VA

IV. Exhibitions

• 1898–9 Paris Salon; honorable mention 1898; gold medal 1899
• 1900 Paris Exposition Universelle; bronze medal
• 1902 Paris Salon; Prix Rosa Bonheur; Bourse de Voyage
• 1904 Salone d’Atomne
• 1905 10th Annual Carnegie International Exhibition
• 1906–9, 1911 Paris Salon; Prix National Du Salon, 1906
• 1911–2 Knoedler Galleries; solo exhibitions
• 1912 Architectural League
• 1919 Galerie Devambez
• 1926–30 Paris Salon; Prix de l’Institut de France, 1929
• 1928 Architectural League
• 1929 Art Institute of Chicago
• 1932 École Nationale des Beaux-Arts
• 1936 Paris Salon
• 1940 Los Angeles Museum
• 1949 California Palace of the Legion of Honor
• Stanford University
• 1950 Five one-man exhibitions in Los Angeles and San Francisco

V. Memberships

• Académie des Beaux-Arts, 1933; jury member
• Architectural League, 1912
• Comité France-Amérique of the Académie Francaise, 1912; founding member
• École Nationale des Beaux-Arts, 1933; jury member
• Exposition Internationale, Paris, 1937; jury member
• Institut de France, 1953; Corresponding Member
• Légion d’Honneur, 1919; chevalier
• Société des Artistes Françaises

VI. Notes

1. Joseph Gropper, Charles Hoffbauer (West Somerville, MA: Gropper Art Gallery, 1977), 2.
2. Ibid.
3. Arthur Hoeber, “Concerning Charles Hoffbauer” in Paintings by Charles Hoffbauer (New York: M. Knoedler & Co., 1911), np.
4. Arthur Hoeber, “A Foreword,” Paintings of Charles Hoffbauer (New York: M. Knoedler & Co., 1912), np.
5. Gropper, 10.
6. Ibid, 18.

VII. Suggested Resources

• Falk, Peter H. “Charles Hoffbauer,” in Who Was Who in American Art. Madison, Connecticut: Sound View Press, 1999, p. 1585.
• Gropper, Joseph. Charles Hoffbauer. West Somerville, MA: Gropper Art Gallery, 1977.