Charles Christian Eisele

Charles Christian Eisele is a German-born artist best known for his landscapes of the Western and Midwestern United States. His inspiration largely came from mountain towns in the North and Midwest, but he was also active on the East Coast and in the South. His paintings received much interest in Utah, which he visited multiple times, and in 1889 he was asked by the World’s Fair Commission of Utah to complete a painting of Salt Lake City for the World’s Columbian Exposition.

Charles Christian Eisele was born in 1854 in Esslingen, Germany. Not much is known of his life prior to moving to the United States, which he did in 1869 much like other European artists who were interested in the vast, untamed wilderness of the United States. Eisele spent time in various states throughout the country, including Florida, Utah, Wyoming, Oregon and others. His journeys to different parts of the country resulted in his painting of various landscape types: riverine, mountainous, plains and others.

Eisele’s works capture a wide variety of spectacles from across the United States. Some of his works portray the swamps and wetlands of Florida, some depict life in a Native American camp, and others show glittering bodies of water sitting in the shadows of massive mountains. Eisele certainly saw much of the country and was attracted to what he saw, as evidenced by his return to many of the places he visited. One such place is Utah, where he returned in 1909, 16 years after completing the piece for the World Columbian Exposition. Charles Eisele continued to travel and paint until his death in Oregon City, Oregon in 1919.