Louis Conrad Rosenberg

Louis Conrad Rosenberg (1890–1983) was an American artist, architect, author, and educator active between 1914 and 1966 known for his precise staging and rendering of architectural scenes in Europe and the United States during the 1920s and 1930s.

Early life Louis Conrad Rosenberg was born on May 6, 1890, in Portland, Oregon, to Charles and Hannah Rosenberg, and as a child he demonstrated an early aptitude for sketching and drawing. In 1906, when Rosenberg turned 16, his mother arranged for him to apprentice at the office of T. Chapell Brown, a local Portland architect. Rosenberg began his study of architecture in Brown's office and stayed there for two years as an unpaid intern, after which he was promoted to staff draftsman. Later, he came into contact with another Portland architect, Ellis Fuller Lawrence, who hired Rosenberg to be a draftsman and renderer in his office, and who would later prove instrumental in Rosenberg's future education and career. In 1912, Rosenberg was awarded a college scholarship from The Architectural Club of Oregon, and at the urging of E. F. Lawrence, applied to study architecture at The Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Education In 1912, having distinguished himself as an architectural artist and renderer, Rosenberg was awarded a scholarship by the Architectural Club of Portland. His employer and mentor, E. F. Lawrence encouraged the young man to attend The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, from which Rosenberg graduated in 1914. While at M.I.T. Rosenberg's formidable skills as a draftsman and architectural artist set him apart from his classmates, and he was awarded the M.I.T. Traveling Fellowship in Architecture, entitling him to two years' study abroad. Unfortunately, Europe was in turmoil over what were the beginnings of World War I, and Rosenberg put off his planned trip abroad. However, Ellis Lawrence, who was then establishing the school of architecture at The University of Oregon, invited Rosenberg to return home to join the faculty as Assistant to the Dean and teach. He was living in Fairfield, Connecticut in 1946. He died in Oregon City, Oregon in 1983.

Societies

Rosenberg was an active professional citizen, and was admitted as a Senior Fellow of The Royal Society of Painter-Etchers in 1931; a member of The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufacturers and Commerce, London in 1936; an Academician of The National Academy of Design in 1932; and a member of The Architectural Institute of America in 1952; along with memberships in The American Institute of Architects, The Brooklyn Society of Etchers (after 1922 The Society of American Etchers, which then became the Society of American Graphic Artists in 1952), The Chicago Society of Etchers, The Philadelphia Society of Etchers, and The Chelsea Arts Club, London.

Collections His work is held in the collections of the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Royal Academy of Arts in London, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the British Museum, the Brooklyn Museum, the New York Public Library, the Fine Art Museums of San Francisco, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Harvard Art Museums, the Birmingham Museum of Art, the Mattatuck Museum, the Allen Memorial Art Museum, the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, the Indianapolis Museum of Art, the Clark Art Institute, the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, the Hood Museum of Art, the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, the Syracuse University Art Museum, Mount Vernon, the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Aberdeen Archives, Gallery, and Museums, the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, the Portland Art Museum, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, the Delaware Art Museum, the University of Michigan Museum of Art, and the Carnegie Museum of Art.