Robert von Neumann

Robert von Neumann was a German-American artist and an influential teacher, born in Rostock, Germany. He was formally trained at the Vereinigten Staatsschulen fur freie und angewandte Kunst in Berlin from 1910-1914. After serving in the German infantry during World War I, he took up teaching in Berlin.  

Von Neumann immigrated to the United states in 1926, where he settled in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and worked as a lithographer and staff member of the Milwaukee Journal. He taught at a variety of schools in the US, including the Layton School of Art from 1929-1930, the Wisconsin State Teachers College from 1930-1959 and the Ox-Bow Summer School of Painting in Saugatuck, Michigan. He served as President of Wisconsin Painters and Sculptors from 1931-1932, and was a founding member of the Wisconsin Watercolor Society (1952). In 2007, he was posthumously awarded the Wisconsin Visual Arts Lifetime Achievement Awards.

Von Neumann's work followed similar themes to the American Regionalist movement, paying homage to the working man. He had a particular love for fisherman conquering the sea, but depicted other workers, such as lumberjacks, as well. He also produced landscapes and genre scenes.