Siegfried Reinhardt


Siegfried Gerhard Reinhardt born July 31, 1925 in Eydkuhnen, Germany, died October 24, 1984 in St. Louis, Missouri was a prolific artist and teacher based for most of his career, 1955–1970 at Washington University in St. Louis, where he had taken his Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature in 1950. He was also a prominent member of the St. Louis Artists Guild. He was the son of Otto Frederick and Minni Reinhardt, and emigrated with them in 1928. His best-known work is perhaps the series of murals he executed at Lambert International Airport illustrating the . He was a pioneer in combining elements of realism and surrealism in a style known sometimes as superrealism. From 1949 to 1984 he worked with in the design and execution of stained glass windows, including the Easter Window in the Lutheran Church of the Resurrection, in Sunset Hills, Missouri, of which Reinhardt said:
Reinhardt, a Lutheran, often worked with Christian motifs and themes. His 1955 commission for Monsanto Company, "Mistress of Chemistry," deploys his wife Harriet in imagery combining traditional depictions of the Madonna; his 1953 "Crucifixion" receives extended discussion in Robert Henkes' "The Crucifixion in American Art". The Brauer Museum at Valparaiso University has three religious works in its permanent collection: "Resurrection," "Design for a Crown," and "Caiaphas."
Additional works are housed at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, the Saint Louis Art Museum, the Vatican Museum Picture Gallery, and the Whitney Museum of American Art. In the late 1950s, he produced the painting “Man of Sorrows” in a series of seven installments on television station KETC, explaining his decisions and techniques to viewers as he went. He was the subject of a feature in the March 24, 1952 issue of Life Magazine; in 1950 the magazine had listed him among nineteen important young artists. Time Magazine had also identified him as an important new figure :
He also did numerous figure studies, often using his wife, the sculptor Harriet Fleming Reinhardt, as a model. They were beloved figures in their Kirkwood, Missouri home on Craigwoods Drive, and hundreds of original works as well as prints are thought to have been given away to friends, neighbors and acquaintances. One neighbor recollected: ”Siegfried Reinhardt served as the illustrator on the rare Shanghai edition of the Stars and Stripes, which was published aboard ship, the USS General R. M. Blatchford, a vessel carrying 2,461 troops from the CBI-China/Burma/India campaign. The ship was returning to the States April 21-May 6, 1946 following World War II. The then 21-year-old Reinhardt's stencil sketches for the "daily" 17 issue onboard newspaper are nimbly done, and add a great deal to the morale boosting nature of this spontaneous edition of the Soldier's Newspaper...” .
Reinhardt also served as artist in residence at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale and 1968-1969 and St. Louis Community College Meramec, 1971-1984. His works have sold for up to $25,500.00.
Reinhardt died of an apparent heart attack at the age of 59, according to his in the New York Times.
Other works on public display include: