Figure 1.--We have found a portrait of a boy in a sports collar, probably painted in the 1930s. We date it based on the open sports collar that the boy wears. We believe the boy is an American boy. All we know for sure is that the portrait was signed by O. Merkell.

We have found a portrait of a boy in a sports collar, probably painted in the 1930s. We date it based on the open sports collar that the boy wears. We believe theboy is a German boy. All we know for sure is that the portrait was dated by O. Merkell. We are sure about this because the portrait is signed "O. Merkell". We were not familiar with this artist. (One auction house thought he was German.) Hapily one of our well informed HBC readers tells us that Merkell is an American artist. He writes, "Otto Merkel was an American painter. I have seen a woman's portrait painted in 1921, simular to the one of this boy. Unfortunately I have no more information about the artist." We nothing more about him. Hopefully our readers will know more about him. Nor do we know anything about the boy he painted. Presumably he is an American boy. He looks to be about 10 years ols and wears a suit coat with an open collared shirt. We have noted that collar being worn in America duiring the 1930s and it was called a sports collar. It was also commonly worn in Germany where is was called a Schiller collar after the romantic poet. An American reader tells us, "I have an Otto Merkel portrait of my husband that was done here in Philadelphia around 1935. He too is wearing the same collar that was popular not only in Germany but here as well. Mr. Merkel did my husband's whole family. He did a life sized painting of my father-in-law in his World War 1 uniform. I do know he was working in Philadelphia. He probably went to the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. I know he did a lot of wealthy Philadelphia families. That is all the information that I have. I will ask my sister-in-law if she knows any more about him and where his studio was located. I would love to hear from any others who have any of his paintings." [Colket]

Sources

Colket, Mary. E-mail message, August 3, 2007.

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Created: March 8, 2004
Last updated: 5:23 PM 8/3/2007