Winold Reiss As a Portraitist - Cincinnati History...

Summer/Fall 1993

Winold Reiss As APortraitist

Winold Reiss As A Portraitist

Jeffrey C. Stewart

When Winold Reiss accepted the CincinnatiUnion Terminal commission in 1931, he had already creat-ed a corpus of multicultural imagery in his artworkunequalled by any other living American artist. That bodyof work derived in large part from his love of ethnic diver-sity, an infatuation he had brought with him to America.As a German who had migrated in 1913 to the UnitedStates to escape Bismarckian nationalism, Reiss had alsobeen drawn to America because of its diverse racial groups.Although Germany today is better known for its traditionof racism from the Nazis of the 1930s to the skinheads ofthe 1990s, Reiss is a reminder that a tradition of romanticidealism and humanism, reflected in the thought of JohannWolfgang Goethe, Heinrich Heine, and Wilhelm Dilthey,existed in Germany at the turn of the century.1 Reiss's artreflected what these better known intellectuals extolled intheir writings — that unity in diversity was one of thehighest goals of modern civilization. Like those otherGerman immigrants, the Ohio Hegelians, who had cometo Cincinnati in the nineteenth century, Reiss was — darewe say it in the 1990s — a liberal. And his multiculturalmosaics reflect a powerful interpretation of Cincinnati inthe 1930s from a liberal humanistic viewpoint. For whileReiss's sharply etched portraits of Cincinnati's mayor, rail-road owner, and engineer have a special place in theTerminal, Reiss's mosaics of anonymous workers, builders,and travelers of Cincinnati's and America's history remainthe more compelling images to us today. I believe Reisswanted to tell us that the workers, the builders, the Indianpioneers, and the Black dockworkers are the really impor-tant people in America, and that is why he made theirimages so big and impressive in this American mosaicmonument.

The man who provided Cincinnati with suchan inclusive vision of itself was born on September 16,1886, in Karlsruhe, the former capital of the state of Badenin southern Germany. He was the second son of FritzReiss (1857-1914), the well-known landscape artist, whowas also known for his sympathetic portraits of Germanpeasants.2 Winold Reiss inherited his father's talent for

drawing and his belief that the artist must travel in order tofind the best and most interesting subjects for portraiture.It may have been Fritz Reiss who also stimulated his son'sinterest in distinctive ethnic types. Winold spent his earlyyears traveling with his father throughout Germany asReiss the elder hunted down the particular types of peas-ants that he wanted to paint and draw. But Winold's inter-est in depicting the different features and cultures of peas-ants also had deeper roots in the peculiarly German fasci-nation with human diversity, even within Germany itself.When Winold Reiss was born, Germany had been onlyrecently unified, and most Germans still thought of them-selves in regional terms, as Prussians, Bavarians, for exam-ple. Those from different states of Germany were some-times regarded as constituting different races. Winold Reissbecame fascinated by such regional differences when hereturned to Germany as an adult artist in 1922 and pro-duced numerous portraits of German peasants. Like thephotographer August Sander, Reiss was fascinated by typeportraiture of people from different occcupations as well asregions, and that interest also informed his narrative por-trayal in the Cincinnati Union Terminal.3 In his representa-tion of Cincinnati's workers, for example, Reiss tried toportray the distinguishing type of the industrial worker,the river boat captain, and the dockworker. A creative ten-sion existed between his desire to capture the individualityof his sitters and his desire to record the typical features ofa class or ethnic group. No better examples of that tensionexist than his mosaic portraits in the Cincinnati UnionTerminal.

Even before coming to America in 1913,Winold Reiss was more captivated by painting Indians thanby painting the German peasants his father so loved.Young German boys of the late nineteenth and early twen-tieth centuries feasted on western stories of adventure writ-ten by James Fenimore Cooper, the American romanticist,and Karl May, the German author who pioneered the old"Shatterhand" stories of a German-speaking hero in theWild West.4 As a young boy, Reiss envisioned America as anatural paradise in which Indians and White men lived dra-matic lives and good people triumphed over the "badmen." Reiss may have imbibed from this literature thebelief that Indians were dying out in the inevitable forward

Jeffrey C. Stewart, anAssociate Professor ofHistory at George MasonUniversity, curated theSmithsonian Institution'sNational Portrait Gallery exhi-bition, To Color America:Portraits by Winold Reiss,

and authored its catalogue. In1992-1993, he was a fellow atthe Woodrow WilsonInternational Center forScholars.

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march of civilization. Hints at such an evolutionary narra-tive abound in the Cincinnati Union Terminal rotundamural, where progress marches from the dog travois to therailroad and airplane, and the Indians appear bypassed, ifnot forgotten, by the advance of history. Winold Reissmay very well have seen his portraits of Indians as part of amission to preserve the memory and contribution of theIndian, despite their inevitable displacement. Like FritzReiss, who tramped around Germany recording the peas-ant visage his contemporaries thought was fast disappear-ing, Winold Reiss traveled the dusty roads of Americainspired to record the races most Americans thought mar-ginal to American progress.

Reiss, however, never let his love of the pastor his interest in type portraiture interfere with his aesthet-ic motivation to foster a truly modern art in America.Always a modernist, whether drawing a portrait, a poster,or an interior, Reiss was interested in the decorative andthe beautiful, and that interest kept his art from everbecoming merely ethnographic fascination. That decora-tive modernism came from Germany as well, though notfrom his father. It derived from the teachers he studiedwith in Munich in the 1910s, especially Franz Stuck, of theRoyal Academy of Fine Art in Munich, and Julius Diez, atthe Kunstjyewerbeschule. Stuck helped originate Jujyendstil,or youth style, Germany's late nineteenth century responseto France's Art Nouveau movement, while Diez tookJugendstil another step and applied its principles to postermaking, interior decoration, and commercial design.5 As agraphic arts movement, Jugendstil used bright colors, flatsurfaces, and design motifs to embellish both fine andcommercial art. Indeed, Jugendstil challenged modernartists to overcome the long-entrenched division betweenfine and applied art, which became particularly importantearly in the twentieth century when Germany became aleader in industrial and commercial design. When WinoldReiss went to school in Germany, artists were expected towork in both fine and commercial arts, and blend insightsfrom the one into the other. At the Kunstgewerbeschule,for example, Reiss mastered lettering, box making, posterdesign, advertisements, and interior decoration. Suchtraining well prepared him for the Cincinnati commission,a commercial venture that allowed him to showcase thediversity of his own talents as well as his ethnic vision.

Indeed, the opportunity to exploit his broadtalent may have been the most important factor in hisdecision to migrate to America. Although Reiss alwaysrecalled publicly that he came to America primarily to

paint the Indians, he also knew America offered virgin ter-ritory for his talents, especially compared to Germanywhich was full of similarly trained artists. Shortly after hisarrival in New York City in 1913, he was a success: Winoldillustrated several books and magazines, designed com-mercial interiors, lectured before the Art Students League,and founded a publication, Modern Art Collector, to pro-mote the bold use of color in advertising design.6 Reisseven gained a student following at the Winold Reiss ArtSchool, which he established in his studio on ChristopherStreet. But the United States' entry into World War Ichoked off his career, as anti-German hostility swept thenation in 1917. Forced to move his family upstate toWoodstock, Reiss relied heavily on his Swiss-English wifeto negotiate his contracts, since his heavy German accentreadily identified him as one of the "enemy."7

Nevertheless, through hard work and persistence, Reisssurvived and actually became one of the founding fathersof the legendary Woodstock artist community. When heobtained a lucrative commission in 1919 to modernize theinterior of the Crillon restaurant, Reiss used the money tofund his first love, the trip to Browning, Montana, topaint the Indians.

Winold Reiss was thirty-three-years oldwhen he boarded a train from New York City west toBrowning, Montana, the reservation of the BlackfeetIndians. He recalled to an interviewer what happened. "Iarrived at Browning at three in the morning, in a fierceblizzard. A kind of a 'bus' took us to the hotel, which wasalmost dark. Entering I found the clerk asleep in a bigchair, and when I requested lodging he said very grufflythere wasn't any. I argued that I could not go back intothe storm and that he must let me lay my terribly tiredhead somewhere. He finally told me I could share the'bunk' of a cobwoy [sic] upstairs, at the back of the build-ing. I mounted by candle light and entered a loft in whichthe one bed was already occupied, and the cowboy's WildWest outfit was piled on the only chair. As I crowded inbeside him the sleeper only grunted, and I fast joined himand knew no more until broad daylight. When I wakenedmy bedfellow had gone, and as I felt for my wad of moneyunder our one pillow found it still there. Looking out ofthe window, I saw eight or ten very tall Indians in Buffalocoats and huge fur caps standing silently in the snowyenclosure before the hotel. I went down at once, intend-ing to make their acquaintance without knowing how,but, acting on impulse, I walked up to the tallest braveand slapped him on the back to his utter astonishment.

Summer/Fall 1993 Winold Reiss As A Portraitist

Another, a half-breed who spoke English, asked what Iwanted. I said I had come all the way from Europe tomake the acquaintance of my Indian brother. The inter-preter's explanation brought a handclasp, smile and nodthat passed all down the line."8 Reiss, fortunate not to bestruck dead on the spot by the man whose back he slapped— Turtle, a six feet tall, sinewy strong young Blackfoothunter — readily made friends with the Blackfeet, whothen allowed him to draw them. By the time of his deathin 1953, Reiss had produced hundreds of portraits of theBlackfeet and had included one of his portraits of Turtle,his first friend among the Blackfeet, in the rotunda mosaicwall mural that adorns the interior of the Cincinnati UnionTerminal.

Reiss produced some of his best Blackfeetportraits on that first trip to Browning, for these works ofart were distinguished by their wonderful detail and pow-erful modelling of their faces and forms. His portrait ofTurtle seemed to give his sitter's face a three dimensionaldepth and presence. Reiss achieved this effect in part byflattening the body of his subject in a manner reminiscentof the Jugendstil posters he had seen in Munich. Drawingquickly with crayon, charcoal, and conte pencil on paper,Reiss seemed to have time only to sketch his subjects' mar-

Figure 1

velous heads, a technique that emphasized the characterand force of personality of his subjects. Such economy ofexpression gave his 1919 portraits a power and dignityrarely seen in Indian portraits by other White artists of theperiod. Reiss's exhibit in New York in 1920 of the thirty-sixportraits from this trip was a hit. The entire collection waspurchased by Dr. Phillip Cole, a New York doctor fromMontana, who knew many of the subjects Reiss haddrawn.9 But Reiss lacked sufficient funds to support anoth-er trip to Montana, and without access to the models, hecould not produce any more Indian portraits. Funding didbecome available for Winold to travel with his student, W.Langdon Kihn, to Mexico in 1922.10 Although a civil warraged in Mexico during his trip, Reiss walked through suchstates as Morelos, Oaxaca, and Pueblo, and even visitedZapata's headquarters at Cuernavaca, sketching soldiers,bandits, and revolutionaries wherever he went. Upon hisreturn to New York, Reiss published several of the portraitsin a special issue of the Survey Graphic, a social reformmagazine, edited by Katherine Anne Porter.11 But no mar-ket existed for such portraits back in New York City. Witha son to support and alimony to pay — his wife divorcedhim in the early 1920s — Reiss had to devote most of histime to interior design. It was not until June 1927, thatReiss again visited Browning, Montana, and had theopportunity to continue drawing the Blackfeet people.

This trip occurred, however, only after Reisshad begun to explore the portraiture of another Americanethnic group — that of the African American.Commissioned by the Survey Graphic magazine to illus-trate a special issue on Blacks in Harlem, Winold Reiss andhis brother, Hans Reiss, trekked almost daily up to Harlemto select models from the vibrant working class there topose back in his studio in Greenwich Village. In addition,he invited numerous African American artists and intellec-tuals, such as Langston Hughes, Paul Robeson, ZoraNeale Hurston, and W.E.B. Du Bois, to his studio for por-traits as well. The photographs of these portraits becamethe hit of the very popular Survey Graphic's March 1, 1925issue, "Harlem: Mecca of the New Negro." Reproduced incolor in the book version, The New Negro: AnInterpretation, edited by Alain Locke, another Black intel-lectual, Reiss's pastel portraits made as powerful a state-ment for racial dignity as anything else in the volume.12

Two years later, Reiss traveled to South Carolina, againunder the auspices of Survey Graphic, but this time to assistthe Penn School on the Sea Islands by creating a series ofindelible images of African American residents who had

Reiss's portrait of Turtle, hisfirst friend among theBlackfeet, seemed to giveTurtle's face a three dimen-sional depth and presence.(Figure #1)

Credits for the illustrations inthis article are listed onpage 19.

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Figure 2

After he entered into his rela- treatment to the dress of histionship with Great Northern subject than in his 1919Railroad, Reiss devoted more portraits. (Figure #2)attention to the clothing anddress of his subjects. In "LazyBoy in his Medicine Robes,"Reiss gave much greater


lived isolated off the coast of South Carolina for over twohundred years.13 Reiss's experience in the HarlemRenaissance and in South Carolina probably shaped hisdecision to include images of African Americans in theCincinnati Union Terminal mosaics.

Reiss's first love, however, was always paint-ing Indians, and in 1927, he found an opportunity to goback out West and resume his Indian portraiture when hiswork came to the attention of Louis W. Hill, the presidentof the Great Northern Railroad. Hill owned several hotelsin Glacier Park and had come up with the idea to use theIndian theme to attract tourists. He employed Indians togreet tourists at the station, to entertain guests at thehotel, and he had even invited artists to draw portraits ofthe Blackfeet. During the summer of 1925, Hill met HansReiss who convinced Hill to invite his brother Winold toGlacier Park to draw Indians. In the summer of 1927,Reiss returned to Montana, this time under the auspices ofthe Great Northern Railroad. Great Northern paid him totravel from New York to Glacier Park, gave him a studioin East Glacier, and paid his living expenses for the sum-mer in Glacier. Hill wanted a quantity of Blackfeet por-traits to illustrate the Great Northern calendars, and theseReiss supplied. Moreover, Hill purchased all fifty-two por-traits that Reiss drew that summer. He spent the next twosummers in Glacier Park, returned again in 1931, and then,after a brief hiatus, from 1934 to 1937 ran the Winold ReissSummer School at Glacier Park. In 1943 he returned toMontana on his final study trip to conclude what was thelongest running and most profitable patronage relation-ship that Reiss would enjoy in his long career.14

Not surprisingly, Reiss's portraits changedafter he entered into his relationship with the GreatNorthern Railroad. With more time to draw his subjects,Reiss's portraits became more detailed and complete, as hedevoted more attention to the clothing and dress of hissubjects. In "Lazy Boy in His Medicine Robes" Reiss gavemuch greater treatment to the dress of his subject than hehad done in his 1919 portraits. Even more dramatic, Reissfilled in the background of this portrait with symbols thatevoked designs that the Blackfeet drew on their tepees.The shift in attention reflected Reiss's increased interest inthe material culture of the Blackfeet people and his growthas an artist: these portraits were far more complex and sug-gested Reiss had begun to integrate the ethnographicinterest of his portraiture with the decorative interest ofhis commercial art. Reiss exploited this tension betweennaturalism and abstraction most successfully in his mosaic

murals in the rotunda of the Cincinnati terminal.More subtle was the way the dress of Reiss's

sitters changed during his Glacier Park years. Most of his1919 portraits showed the Blackfeet in the everyday dressworn around town or the reservation. In the portraitsReiss drew after 1927, many more of the Blackfeetappeared in formal dress. This shift may have reflectedwhat Reiss saw. From 1927 on, he was able to attend theSun Dance, the religious celebration of the Blackfeet, heldin Browning each summer. On such occasions, dress ofthe type that Lazy Boy wore would have been appropriate.In other cases, however, the formal dress of Reiss's sittersseemed inappropriate, even if flattering. A later portrait ofTurtle done under the auspices of Great Northern showedTurtle in a sumptious shirt and Sioux headdress thatTurtle, a poor man, probably did not own.

To Reiss, such issues were not very impor-

tant. He was an artist, after all, and not an ethnographer;and he liked to draw fancy dress outfits for their decorativevalue. But the prevalence of formally attired subjects inReiss's later portraits may also have reflected his desire tosatisfy the tastes of his Great Northern patrons who, gener-ally speaking, preferred formally dressed subjects for theircalendars and their hotel entertainment. Louis Hill pos-

A later portrait of Turtle doneunder the auspices of GreatNorthern showed Turtle in asumptuous shirt and Siouxheaddress that Turtle, a poorman, probably did not own.(Figure #3)

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sessed one of the largest collections of Blackfeet clothing inthe world, and was sometimes seen wearing Sioux head-dresses in Glacier Park.15 As most patrons have shaped thework of artists they support, Louis Hill and his agents, ifonly by the portraits that they purchased, subtly influencedReiss's work. Even so, Reiss, always an independent-mind-ed man, continued to paint Blackfeet in everyday dress,often producing two portraits of the same sitters.

With better artist supplies — Great Northernshipped his canvases and other materials out to Glacier bytrain — Reiss produced much larger portraits after 1927.His 1919 portraits measuring 19 by 14 inches had been lim-ited by the size of paper he could bring with him. Suchpapers were only large enough for him to capture the headand shoulders of his sitters. But starting in 1927, Reiss pro-duced several full-length portraits of "Shot Both Sides""Pete After Buffalo and Night Shoot" and "Bob RidingBlack Horse." These large portraits allowed Reiss to show

off their dress outfits and to situate his subjects by includingbits of landscape and his signature marshmallow clouds.Such large portraits (generally 80 by 36 inches) lookedahead to the double life-size portraits of the Blackfeet thatadorned the walls of the Cincinnati rotunda. Like "PeteAfter Buffalo" "Turtle" appears full-sized in the History ofTransportation section of the Cincinnati mural; and he isformally dressed in the clothing of the Bear Society andseems, to the uninitiated, as if he is ready to head off on ahunt. Turtle, in short, appears in 1933 in scene, as part of aromantic narrative that is reminiscent of the Karl May west-erns that Reiss had read as a boy.

For the Cincinnati commission, Reiss por-trayed the Blackfeet as characters in the narrative ofAmerican progress, rather than as the complex, introspec-tive personalities they had been in his earlier portraits. Hisrepresentations of Turtle and Middle Rider were no longerportraits, but ideal types of the Indian who had lost most

Figure 4 Figure 5 Figure 6

Beginning in 1927 Reiss pro-duced several full length por-traits, 80 by 36 inches, whichallowed him to show off theirdress outfits as in "Shot BothSides," (Figure #4); "PeteAfter Buffalo and Night

Shoot," (Figure #5); and "BobRiding Black Horse."(Figure #6)


Figure 7 Figure 8

In the Union Terminal muralTurtle appears full-sized andformally dressed in the cloth-ing of the Bear Society.(Figure #7)

His representations of Turtleand Middle Rider were nolonger portraits, but idealtypes of the Indian who hadlost most of theirindividuality. (Figure #8)

10 Queen City Heritage

of their individuality. The balance between the individualand the type, which was always a delicate balance in hisportraits, was tilted towards type in this mural. Such a shiftin emphasis was, of course, consistent with his commissionto produce an epic history of transportation in the termi-nal. In such a mural, the narrative dominated the portrayalof his subjects as real people. Quite simply, Reiss had bor-rowed two of his Blackfeet friends to perform in thispageant to American progress. But Reiss had been deter-mined to bring along his Indian friends to the Cincinnatimural project, despite their difficult fit in his narrative his-tory of American transportation.

Figure 9

Reiss also brought along his interest inAfrican American life and art. Reiss had played a uniquerole in the construction of the Black image in the 1920swhen he illustrated a special issue of Survey Graphic maga-zine devoted to the new sense of creativity in Harlem.Working closely with guest editor Alain Locke, the Blackphilosopher and critic, Reiss met and drew portraits of across section of the Black community, including laborers,singers, ministers, sociologists, and the writers who werethe "New Negroes," the leaders of the HarlemRenaissance literary movement of the mid-1920s.w Reiss's

interaction with the "New Negroes" was particularlyimportant because it sensitized him to how Black intellec-tuals regarded their negative portrayal in the mainstreammedia. His pastel portraits of civil rights leaders, such asW.E.B. Du Bois and anonymous people from Harlem'sstreets captured the pride and self confidence of the Blackcommunity in the urban North of the post-World War Iera. In addition, Reiss created the visual "jazz aesthetic" ofthe Harlem Renaissance with his abstract imaginativedesigns that evoked the nightlife of Harlem.17 Rather thana superficial fad, Reiss's interest in the African Americansubject was deep and one he returned to again in his por-traits of South Carolina Sea Islanders in 1927 and in por-traits of other African American heroes.

When Reiss approached his commission tochronicle Cincinnati's history, he wanted to includeAfrican Americans in his mosaics. But Reiss lacked the timeto make extensive forays into the Black community ofCincinnati to find subjects for his mosaics. Having beenbrought onto the project after it had been started, and bythe heads of the railroad who probably cared very littleabout the representation of Blacks in a mural to Cincinnatiand American transportation, Reiss lacked the kind ofinteraction with significant African American leaders thathe had enjoyed on the Harlem project. Such contact mighthave allowed Reiss to include portraits of such significantlocal educational leaders as Jennie Porter and WendellPhillips Dabney in his mosaic history of Cincinnati, along

Figure 10

His pastel portrait of W.E.B.DuBois was one of manywhich captured the pride andself-confidence of the Blackcommunity in the urbanNorth of the post World War Iera. (Figure #9)

Reiss drew portraits of across section of the Blackcommunity, including labor-ers, singers, sociologists, andanonymous people fromHarlem's streets. (Figure #10)

With his abstract imaginativedesigns which evoked thenight life of Harlem, Reissoriginated the visual "jazzaesthetic" of the HarlemRenaissance. (Figure #11) -*

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Figure 12

with the portraits of unskilled laborers that did appear.18

As a result, his Cincinnati Union Terminal images ofAfrican Americans offered a much narrower view of theBlack community than those Reiss had created in hisHarlem series.

Not surprisingly, the two Black figures thatappear in the rotunda mural and the lone Black youth inthe "Chemicals and Drugs" concourse mosaic wear lesswell today than those he created for the Survey Graphic.Whereas the Harlem portrayals seem quite contemporaryin their appearance, the Cincinnati African Americansseem more dated and germane to the period of the early1930s. On the rotunda, the stooped-over Black man onthe left seems a character out of the song "OP ManRiver," which even the militant Black actor Paul Robeson

sang in the 1932 revival of the play "Showboat."19 Despitethe marvelous detail that Reiss brings to this anonymousworker's face and arms, this man's action recalls thatsong's famous line, "tote dat barge, lift dat bale" of cot-ton—which this figure is about to do. Similarly, Reissgives the Black youth in the "Chemicals and Drugs" con-course mosaic a sensitivity and poignancy that transcendsthat of the less carefully drawn White supervisor in thebackground — a clue perhaps about which character Reisssympathized with in this scene. But Reiss's sympathetictreatment of the youth is counterbalanced by the expres-sion on the boy's face and in his eyes, which seems to sug-gest he is about to reply "Yassum" to his White supervi-sor's request to place the pail of liquid chemical on thefloor near him.

What rescues these images from merely

Figure 13

His Harlem portraits seemquite contemporary in theirappearance. (Figure #12)

The stooped-over Black manin the rotunda seems acharacter out of the song,"Ol' Man River." (Figure #13)

Summer/Fall 1993 Winold Reiss As A Portraitist 13

Figure 14

Figure 15

stereotypical characterization is the recognition that Reisssketched them from direct observation in Cincinnati andthat these images tell us more about the conditions oflabor and life in Cincinnati than about Reiss himself.Although such images may make some of us uncomfort-able today, they are documentary studies of what Black lifewas like in Cincinnati during the thirties. When we com-pare Reiss's depiction of the Black figure to the right in therotunda mosaic with a photograph of that man taken

around the same time, we see that Reiss's rendition is afaithful representation of the man and his personality. Thepostures, behaviors, and expressions Reiss recorded werethose forced from African Americans who were drasticallyunderemployed and ruthlessly segregated in housing, edu-cation, and public accommodations in Cincinnati.20 A cityon the Ohio River, Cincinnati was still a trading center forsouthern cotton and employed large numbers of Blacklaborers to offload the boats. As a Depression era city try-ing to reserve the better jobs for its White working class,Cincinnati relegated Black construction workers tounskilled, labor-intensive jobs such as ditch diggers. And as

In the "Chemicals and Drugs"concourse mosaic Reiss gavethe Black youth a sensitivityand poignancy that tran-scends that of the less care-fully drawn White supervisorin the background.(Figures #14 and 15)


their absence from all but one of Reiss's industrial mosaicsattests, Blacks were the "last hired and first fired" inCincinnati's industries during the Great Depression. Takenas a whole, then, Reiss's type portraits of Black men in theCincinnati Union Terminal mosaics are subtle critiques ofthe conditions of employment for Blacks during the 1930s.

Reiss's portrayal of European Americans inthe Cincinnati Union Terminal are just as revealing. Ofcourse, Reiss had drawn portraits of Europeans inGermany, and had made numerous portraits of Americansonce he reached this country in 1913. His portraits of theactors and artists who frequented his studio onChristopher Street are stunning documents of theGreenwich Village lifestyle. In addition, Reiss was oftencommissioned by wealthy men — or their wives — to dotheir portraits, and generally he was quite obliging. Butfrankly, the results were not always pleasing. Some of hissitters complained that his portraits were unflattering. In asense, they were right. In "Portrait of a Man (4)" it is diffi-cult to tell whether it is the man's rigidity or Reiss's lack of

Figure 16

enthusiasm for him that is responsible for the portrait'sstiffness. As in his ethnic portraits, Reiss was drawing atype here as well, and the upper class businessman type wasone with which Reiss could not identify. When he came todraw the important men associated with the Terminal, itspresident, the chief engineer, and the mayor of Cincinnati— all of whom he sketched while in Cincinnati — heachieved more flattering likenesses, but not very corn-

Figure 17

pelling ones. This is ironic because Reiss made severalstudy drawings of these men on his trips to Cincinnati. Hisdrawing of Mr. Waite was the most interesting, because hisfloating head and bespectacled eyes seemed focused asmuch inward as outward on the dramatized scenery of themural. These images of the fathers of the Cincinnati UnionTerminal were honored with placement on their own sepa-rate walls and were the only true portraits or likenesses ofthemselves as individuals on the mural. But these threemen seem stilted and isolated in their own world, perhapsa comment on how Reiss felt about the leaders of urbanand industrial America.

By contrast, Reiss's depictions of European-American workers were dynamic and alive. Reiss must havebeen inspired by Cincinnati's industrial laborers when hevisited them on his study trips, because the images that heproduced of them have greater presence and a power thanthe rest of his mosaics. Their distinctive attribute as imagesis their pose: the workers were always shown in action,hard at work — lifting, cutting, pouring, and buildingAmerica. More than their faces, we see their bodies, often

The postures, behaviors, andexpressions Reiss recordedwere those of AfricanAmericans who were drasti-cally underemployed andsegregated in Cincinnati's

housing, education, and pub-lic accommodations.(Figure #16)

Some of Reiss's portraitmodels complained that hisportraits were unflattering. In"Portrait of a Man (4)" it isdifficult to tell whether it isthe man's rigidity or Reiss's

lack of enthusiasm for himthat is responsible for theportrait's stiffness.(Figure #17)


from the rear, which is Reiss's way of emphasizing theirstrength and their physiques, and their engagement. Theyare preoccupied, immersed in activity, and coping with theDepression as Reiss himself coped with setbacks and disap-pointment: by working. With these images, Reiss wantedto inspire Cincinnati during the Great Depression with avision of itself and America working despite its economicproblems.

The process by which Reiss constructedthese images is interesting as well. Sometime in 1931, Reissvisited several Cincinnati industries and made on sitesketches of the men in action. But Reiss lacked the time tomake extensive drawings of the individual workers inCincinnati. So he borrowed some of the workers' clothing,brought it back to his New York studio, and used modelsto draw the workers. Even his son Tjark Reiss posed forseveral of the workers, including the Railroad Worker,although his father altered Tjark's features to insure eachof the figures would be distinct. In some instances, WinoldReiss used professional models as stand-ins; on other occa-

sions, he commandeered friends and acquaintances whodropped by his studio to be models. The man in the vesttalking on the telephone in the concourse mosaic saluting"Radio Broadcasting" was Allan Crane, a New York litho-grapher and art student of Winold Reiss.21 The man wear-ing a royal blue jacket and posing as a colonial American inrotunda mosaic was Mr. von Gevernitz, a German visitorwho just happened to stop by the Reiss's studio one day.Von Gevernitz's features fit what Reiss had been lookingfor and when asked if he wanted to be in the mural, vonGevernitz said yes.22 In a sense, von Gevernitz was a lot likeTurtle: both were living individuals who were transformedby the narrative theme of the rotunda mosaic into histori-cal archetypes. By donning the clothes of a colonial, aGerman immigrant became an American.

That transformation signified Reiss's ownprocess of Americanization. In Germany, Reiss had startedthe process of symbolically becoming an American whenhe had read those Wild West stories as a young boy andfallen in love with American Indians. Playing cowboys and

Figure 18 Figure 19

His drawing of H.M. Waitewas quite interesting becausehis head and bespectacledeyes seemed focused asmuch inward as outward onthe dramatized scenery of themural. (Figure #18)

His son Tjark Reiss posed forseveral of the workers in therotunda mural including theRailroad Worker. (Figure #19)


Figure 20

Indians with his friends, Reiss had learned to be anAmerican by acting out Indian rituals of slapping eachother on the back, as he would later do to Turtle. Aftercoming to America in 1913, Reiss had identified more withthe Indians he met out West than with the native-bornWhite Americans whose prejudice had forced him and hisfamily to flee New York City during World War I. Hisinvolvement in the Harlem Renaissance of the mid-1920shad allowed Reiss not only to help construct a new imageof African Americans in his portraits, but also to go a stepfurther and become a creator of a new American visual aes-thetic based on African American cultural forms. As aGerman immigrant, Reiss occupied a social positionbetween native-born White Americans and the peoples ofcolor he depicted in his artwork. By devoting himself as anartist to the accurate representation of the Native Americanand the African American, Reiss gave his artistic career a

sense of purpose that it would not have had without it. Bythe 1930s, Reiss was ready to take another step, and thatcame in his marvelous renderings of White working classAmericans in the Cincinnati Terminal. Clearly, these werethe highlights of his Cincinnati mosaic, for their energy,livelinesss, and devotion to work symbolized Reiss's ownmanner of coping with adversity. His representations ofsuch workers signalled that he identified with the cause ofworking class liberty and pioneered the kind of imagery ofthe common working man that other artists would contin-ue to explore later in the thirties in murals for the WorksProgress Administration. Perhaps because Reiss did notview women as part of the history of American transporta-tion or as part of the industrial working class culture ofCincinnati, Reiss did not include any women in his icono-graphic mosaic of American progress.

Not surprisingly, many of his White working

Many of the white workingclass figures of his concoursemodels including the manstanding on the left in"Machine Tools" (Figure #20)and the man dragging thesheet in "Steel Making"

(Figure #21), have a strength,an intensity, and industrious-ness that seem German.


Figure 21

class figures in the Cincinnati mosaics had a Germanicappearance to them. In the concourse mosaics, the barechested man on the left in "Foundries," the man draggingthe sheet in "Steel Making," and the man standing on theleft in "Machine Tools" have a strength, an intensity, andindustriousness that seems German. Reiss was able to readhimself and his people into this panoramic history ofCincinnati and America, and find in America's workers thepositive qualities that characterized him and his people. Ashe moved from identification with the American Indian toparticipation in the Black movement of the HarlemRenaissance, to embracing of the White working class,Reiss became an American himself. It is not simply a coin-cidence, it seems to me, that it was during his work on theCincinnati Union Terminal mosaic history of America, thatReiss became, in 1932, an American citizen.23 TheCincinnati commission allowed him to combine all of his

talents as an artist — from portraitist to abstract interiordesigner — in a single project. Even more important, itallowed him to complete the process of identification withAmerica by combining in one stellar monument toAmericanness all of the ethnic groups with whom he hadidentified. In this project, Reiss achieved both a profession-al integration as an artist and a personal integration as aGerman American that he had not achieved before.

1. See Gordon A. Craig, The Germans (New York, 1983), pp. 26-34,190-208, 316.2. Interview with Tjark Reiss, July 25,1987.3. August Sander, August Sander: Photographs of an Epoch, 1904-1959(exhibition catalogue, Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1980).4. See Preston A. Barba's "Cooper in Germany," Indiana UniversityStudies 2, no. 21 (May 15,1914):52-72 and Karl May's Winnetou, trans-lated by Michael Shaw (New York, 1977). For a more extensive dis-


cussion of the Indian passion of Winold Reiss, see Jeffrey C. Stewart,To Color America: Portraits by Winold Reiss (exhibition catalogue,National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, 1989), pp. 21, 33-38.5. Stewart, p. 22.6. Stewart, pp. 28-32. See also the synopsis of lecture given by WinoldReiss before the Art Students League, "The Modern GermanPoster," that was published in Modern Art Collector (New York,1915).7. Interview with Tjark Reiss, July 25,1987.8. Reminiscences of Winold Reiss quoted in Lillian E. Prussig,"Captured on Canvas: The Spirit of the Races," Brooklyn Eagle, 22(July 1928): 8.9. Interview with Tjark Reiss, July 25,1987.10. Winold Reiss to W.H. Holmes, U.S. National Museum, August14,1920, Winold Reiss Papers, Reiss Estate, private collection.11. Survey Graphic (May 1924).12. Alain Locke, ed. The New Negro: An Interpretation (New York,1925).13. See Rossa Cooley, "How We Brought Farms to School," SurveyGraphic 59 (February 1,1928):572-73, 578.14. See Ann T. Walton, "The Louis W. Will, Sr., Collection ofAmerican Indian Art," in After the Buffalo Were Gone: The LouisWarren Hill, Sr., Collection of Indian Art (St. Paul, Minn., 1985), pp.13-17 and Stewart, pp. 70-119.15. After the Buffalo Were Gone: The Louis Warren Hill, Sr., Collectionof'Indian Art (St. Paul, Minn., 1985). 16. Stewart, pp. 47-56.17. Ibid., pp. 57-62.18. Cincinnati: The Queen City (Cincinnati, 1988), p. 88.19. Martin Bauml Duberman, Paul Robeson: A Biography (New York,1989), pp. 113-115. Duberman documents that Robeson was criticizedby many Blacks for "lending his talent and popularity" to the play,Showboat, and for singing the lyrics to 01 Man River.20. Cincinnati: The Queen City, pp. 88,127-28,136-38.21. Telephone interview with Tjark Reiss, January 27,1993.22. Telephone interview with Tjark Reiss, January 27,1993.23. Documents in the possession of Tjark and Renate Reiss showMarch 14,1932 as the date of Winold Reiss's naturalization.

IllustrationsFigure #1. Turtle (born 1877) Version I. Crayon on paper, 19 3/4 x 141/2 in., 1919 Bradford Brinton Memorial Museum.

Figure #2. Lazy Boy in Medicine Robes (1855-1948). Version I Pasteland tempera on board, 44 x 30 1/2 in., 1927 Department ofAnthropology, National Museum of Natural History, SmithsonianInstitution, Washington, D.C. Photo by Smithsonian Staff photogra-pher.

Figure #3. Angry Bull or Turtle (born 1877). Pastel, charcoal, andtempera on paper, 39 x 26 in., circa 1943 Burlington NorthernRailroad, Fort Worth, Texas.

Figure #4. Shot Both Sides (1877-1956) Version II. Oil on canvas, 80 x36 in., 1927 The Anschutz Collection, Denver, Colorado.

Figure #5. Pete After Buffalo and Night Shoot. Oil on canvas, 79 x 36in., 1927 The Anschutz Collection, Denver, Colorado.

Figure #6. Bob Riding Black Horse. Oil on canvas, 80 x 36 in., 1927

The Anschutz Collection, Denver, Colorado.

Figure #7. Turtle—Study for Mural Version VII. Pastel on board, 24x 18 in., date unknown Private collection.

Figure #8. Turtle and Middle Rider. Oil on canvas, 72 x 48 in., 1934Mr. and Mrs. W. Tjark Reiss.

Figure #9. W.E.B. Du Bois (1868-1963). Pastel on board, 30 1/16 x 215/8 in., circa 1925 National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution,Washington, D . C ; gift of Lawrence A. Fleischman and HowardGarfinkle with a matching grant from the National Endowment forthe Arts.

Figure 22

Figure #10. Harlem Girl (l). Pencil, charcoal, and pastel on board, 217/8 x 14 7/8 in., circa 1925 Museum of Art and Archaeology,University of Missouri, Columbia; gift of Mr. W. Tjark Reiss.

Figure #11. Interpretation of Harlem Jazz. Ink and watercolor onpaper, circa 1924 Henry Field.

Figure #12. Harlem Girl With Blanket. Pastel and conte crayon onboard, 29 3/4 x 20 in., circa 1925 Renate Reiss.

In the Cincinnati UnionTerminal project Reissachieved both a professionalintegration as an artist and apersonal integration as aGerman American that hehad not achieved before.(Figure #22)


Figure #13. Section of Cincinnati Union Terminal Rotunda. GregoryThorp Collection, Cincinnati Historical Society.

Figure #14. Chemicals and Drugs, The William S. Merrell Companysource photo. Gregory Thorp Collection, Cincinnati HistoricalSociety.

Figure #15. Chemicals and Drugs, concourse mosaic. Gregory ThorpCollection, Cincinnati Historical Society.

Figure #16. Photograph of Black Man leaning on shovel. GregoryThorp Collection, Cincinnati Historical Society.

Figure #17. Portrait of a Man (4). Pastel on board, 20 x 15 in. PrivateCollection.

Figure #18. CM. Waite, Chief Engineer, Cincinnati Union Station— Study for Cincinnati Union Terminal Mural. Pastel on board, 30 x22 in., circa 1931-1933 Private Collection.

Figure #19. Railroad Worker — Study for Cincinnati Union TerminalMural. Conte crayon on board, 30 x 22 in., circa 1931-1933 Collectionof the Wolfsonian Foundation, Miami, Florida.

Figure #20. Machine Tools, The Cincinnati Milling MachineCompany concourse mosaic. Gregory Thorp Collection, CincinnatiHistorical Society.

Figure #21. Steel Making, The Andrews Steel Company concoursemosaic. Gregory Thorp Collection, Cincinnati Historical Society.

Figure #22. Winold Reiss (1886-1953) circa 1930s unlocated.

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