Johannes Adam Simon Oertel was a German-American Episcopal clergyman and artist.
After studying art in Germany at Nuremberg and Munich, he practiced engraving until 1848, in which year he came to the United States and taught for a time in Newark, New Jersey. In 1851, he married Julia Adelaide Torrey. They eventually had four children. After his marriage, he engraved plates for bank notes, painted portraits and colored photographs. In 1857 he was elected an associate of the National Academy of Design. In 1857 he moved to Madison, New Jersey, where he painted Lament of the Fallen Spirits and Redemption.
About this time, he was invited to assist in preparing new decorations for the capitol in Washington. 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 (containing 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 became enormously popular and was reproduced in millions of photographs and chromolithographs for sale both in the United States and England.
During the American Civil War, Oertel accompanied the Army of Virginia under General Burnside for several months in 1862. His Virginia Turnpike and other landscapes were the fruit of this military experience. He also did some historical battle scenes, such as the "Battle of Sullivan's Island" that happened during the American Revolutionary War, and some illustrations for Harper's Weekly, such as the cover for November 15, 1864 issue, of "Convalescent Soldiers Passing through Washington, DC, to Re-join their Units" and "The Union Scout".
While residing at Westerly, he prepared himself for orders in the Episcopal church, and he was made deacon in 1865, and subsequently presbyter. He then confined himself almost entirely to the domain of Christian art, and painted pictures that he presented to churches in Glen Cove, New York, New York City, Washington, D.C., North Carolina, and elsewhere.
He was in Washington, D.C., during the funeral of President Abraham Lincoln on April 19, 1865, and left an eloquent account of the event.
The Rev. Johannes Oertel served as the priest of St James Episcopal Church in Lenoir, North Carolina, from 1869 to 1874. He was one of the first in the valley to offer a school for African American children, and offered religious services to those recently freed from slavery, including baptism, confirmation, marriage and funeral rites.
The Reredos in front of the church is an outstanding example of his woodworking skills. Made from over four hundred pieces of chestnut, oak, poplar, holly, cherry, beech, and pine, they were often carved during missionary trips to the Chapel of Rest in Happy Valley, North Carolina, and the Chapel of Peace in Witnel, North Carolina The architectural design is Gothic perpendicular from the 14th and 16th centuries. While Rev. Oertel carved other reredos and altar rails, the one in St. James is considered to be the most intricate and notable. The altar painting (1872) is layered oil on canvass with gold gilt, and depicts Jesus administering Holy Communion to male and female communicants.
While at St. James, friends in New York donated the 100-year-old pump organ from Christ Episcopal Church (Tarrytown, New York). The organ, dating from about 1770, was the first instrument to enhance the service in Lenoir. Rev. Oertel rebuilt the damaged organ, making new pipes, and a new wind chest and bellows. He then carved an illuminated case for the organ works.
By the main church door of the church is "Father Time and His Family", (1862, charcoal and pen on paper), which was completed in Westerly, Rhode Island. It depicts Father Time, his wife (the year) and their children (the months). Each child carries an item from the Cornucopia representative of their month.
A collection of his art is held by the church, and includes: "The Wandering Jew" (1902?, oil on canvas); "Capturing Wild Horses" (print); "Founded Upon a Rock" (1900, oil on canvas); "Rock of Ages" (offset lithography), and known as his most popular work; "Man Rowing Out on the Sea of Life With Christ as Pilot" (1880, oil on canvas); "In Memorium" (between 1880 and 1900, oil on canvas board); "Christian Hope" (1867, oil on canvas); "Head of St Paul" (oil on canvas, unknown date); "Expulsion from the Garden of Eden" (1893, oil on canvas); "Prophecy of Balaam" (1891, monochrome oil on canvas); "The Four Evangelists" (1884, monochrome oil on canvas); "Lament of the Fallen Spirits" (1850, oil on canvas); "Mary Magdalene at the Cross" (ca 1902, oil on canvas); "The Good Shepherd" (1878, oil on canvas); "The Prophet Jeremiah" (oil on canvas, unknown date); "The King of Truth" (1903, oil on canvas); "The Prophet Joel"; The Prophet Ezekiel"; "The Prophet Isaiah"; "The Unknown Prophet"; "The Dispensation of Promise and the Law" (1864-1865, chalk and ink on linen-backed paper).
He had charge of two parishes in North Carolina (in Lenoir) until 1876. He moved around a great deal as a priest and spent time in North Carolina, Florida, Tennessee, St. Louis, Washington DC, Maryland and Virginia.
During his time, Johannes Oertel was also known primarily as a portrait painter, and often he would leave the church in Lenoir, North Carolina, to go north to raise money by painting portraits. Many of his head and bust portraits were popular after the Civil War, and he did a number of them for prosperous clients in New England. He made an interesting portrait of the Mayor of Providence, Rhode Island, Thomas A. Doyle, as a young man on his way up. He would later serve eighteen years as the mayor, and brought Providence, Rhode Island from a manufacturing town to a small metropolis.
The Rev. Oertel is also known for his head of St Paul, held today by the St. James Episcopal Church, and portrayed as a weary but stern man.
Oertel was an instructor of art at Washington University in St Louis, in 1889–91. He spent the last 18 years of his life in a town near Washington DC, where he made many religious paintings and wood carvings. He painted a series of four large pictures entitled The Plan of Redemption which he presented to Sewanee (the University of the South in Tennessee). His last major work came in 1906–07 when he created the paintings and designed the new woodwork for the altarpiece of the Cathedral at Quincy, Illinois.
Oertel died in Vienna, Virginia, where he was living with one of his sons, and is buried in Flint Hill Cemetery in nearby Oakton. Collections of his papers are held by the libraries of George Washington University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
