Herman Rosse

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Hermann Rosse
Born(1887-01-01)1 January 1887
The Hague, Netherlands
Died13 April 1965(1965-04-13) (aged 78)
Nyack, New York, U.S.
Occupations
  • Architect
  • illustrator
  • painter
  • theatrical designer
  • director
Years active1909-1960

Hermann Rosse (1 January 1887 – 13 April 1965) was a Dutch-American architect, illustrator, painter, theatrical designer, and art director.[1] He won an Academy Award for Best Art Direction for the film the King of Jazz.[2]

Early life

He was born in The Hague, Netherlands, and died in Nyack, New York. Herman was the second child of Carl Rosse (8 March 1857 at Kassevitz - ?) and Jacoba, Susanna de Haan. The elder sister of Herman, Bertha, Suzanna (SUZE) Rosse (The Hague, 1 September 1884 – 17 April 1968) became a well-known Dutch painter.

Career

Hermann Rosse studied at the Academy of Art in

Palo Alto, California, where Rosse was commissioned to design decorations for the Netherlands pavilion at the 1915 Panama–Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco. He received a medal of honor for this commission.[5] In 1914 he became an exhibiting member of the exclusive San Francisco Sketch Club.[6] The many exhibitions of his watercolors, murals, and theatrical models at private and public art galleries in the San Francisco Bay Area, including the Palace of Fine Arts, San Francisco Art Association and Oakland Art Gallery, consistently received glowing reviews.[7][8][9][4] Beginning in the spring of 1917 he was appointed the Instructor of Decorative Design at the California School of Fine Arts, today's San Francisco Art Institute.[10] Rosse designed sets for the Forest Theatre in Carmel, Art Theatre of Palo Alto, and The Playhouse in Santa Barbara.[4]

In 1918, he moved to Illinois, where he accepted an appointment to head the Design Department of the School at the

Hollywood, California designing scenery for numerous plays. While under contract for Universal Pictures he created the innovative sets for the films Frankenstein, Strictly Dishonorable, and Emperor Jones. He worked as the Art Director on John Murray Anderson's film the King of Jazz, starring Paul Whiteman and his Orchestra, for which Rosse's imaginative and technically innovative designs earned him the first Academy Award for Art Direction (now in the Chapin Library). The Theatre Arts Monthly, a magazine that frequently showcased Rosse's work, published an article on "Cinema Design" which highlighted with photographs his other films, including, The Murders of the Rue Morgue, East is West, Boudoir Diplomat, and Resurrection.[14]

Rosse worked in theatre in London and the Netherlands, taught as the Professor of Decorative Art at the Technische Hoogeschool in Delft, and designed Dutch pavilions at world's fairs in Brussels, Paris, and New York. He also created plans for subdivisions in several Dutch cities. In 1948 Rosse was appointed Resident Stage designer at the

Tony Award
, the silver prototype of which is in the Chapin Library. Rosse died in Nyack, New York in April 1965.

Since 1988 members of the Rosse family have donated books, manuscripts, paintings, drawings, prints, plans, photographs, documents, and memorabilia concerning the work of Herman and Helena Rosse to Chapin Library, Williams College Williamstown, Massachusetts (USA).

Filmography

References

  1. ^ Scheen, Pieter A. (1970). Lexicon Nederlandse beeldende kunstenaars, 1750-1950, vol.2. The Hague, Netherlands: s'Gravenhage. pp. 261–262.
  2. ^ New York Times, 15 April 1965, p. 34.
  3. ^ The National Cyclopedia of American Biography, Vol.51. New York, NY: James T. White & Co. 1966. p. 419.
  4. ^
    ISBN 9781467545679. An online facsimile of the entire text of Vol. 1 is posted on the Traditional Fine Arts Organization website ("Jennie V. Cannon: The Untold History of the Carmel and Berkeley Art Colonies, vol. One, East Bay Heritage Project, Oakland, 2012; by Robert W. Edwards". Archived from the original
    on 29 April 2016. Retrieved 7 June 2016.).
  5. ^ New York Times, 20 February 1921, p. 7.
  6. ^ San Francisco Chronicle, 11 January 1914, p.20.
  7. ^ San Francisco Chronicle: 5 December 1915, p.24; 20 February 1916, p.24.
  8. ^ The Oakland Tribune: 28 January 1916, p.5; 11 June 1916, p.13; 2 December 1917, p.21; 12 May 1918, p.24.
  9. ^ The Wasp (weekly, San Francisco, CA): 24 June 1916, p.10; 23 September 1916, p.14; 8 December 1917, p.15; 11 May 1918, p.16.
  10. ^ The Oakland Tribune: 17 June 1917, p.24; 1 September 1918, p.6.
  11. ^ American Art Annual: 16, 1919, p.487; 18, 1921, p.549.
  12. ^ The Oakland Tribune, 19 October 1919, p. S-5.
  13. ^ New York Times: 20 February 1921, p. 7; 27 February 1921, p.BR-11.
  14. ^ Theatre Arts Monthly, 16, 1932, pp. 467-470.

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Herman_Rosse&oldid=1215068389"