American Artist: Carl Adolph Weidner

Robert Loder (1891-1955) of East Orange,
New Jersey, Painted at the Age of Two

American
dated 1893
by Carl Adolph Weidner (1865-1906)
(signed 'Carl Weidner', obverse left edge; additionally signed
'Carl A. Weidner 1893', in graphite to reverse)

2 x 2 1/2 inches (sight); 3 x 4 1/4 inches (framed)

watercolor on ivory; housed under glass in a decorative ormolu case

The son of attorney Albert J. Loder and Emma Louise Ames, Robert Loder was born on September 29, 1891 in East Orange, New Jersey. As a young man, he served in the U.S. Army during World War I. He saw action fighting in France as a 1st lieutenant of the 307th Field Artillery, Battery C. After the war, he returned to his hometown of East Orange, where he found work as a wire salesman. He later found success in the investment business as a stock and bond broker, working in partnership with Edgar A. Clark under the name Clark & Loder, located at 39 Broadway, Manhattan. In 1931, he married Florence Stowell (1899-?), daughter of asphalt manufacturer Frederick R. Stowell (1871-1916) and Anna Schlegel. Together, they had a son, Robert, born in East Orange in 1935.

About the Artist: Born in 1865, in Hoboken, New Jersey, Carl Weidner was the youngest of three children born to German immigrants William Weidner and Pauline de la Douai. He studied art in New York City, at the National Academy of Design (est. 1825) and the Art Students League (est. 1875), and in Munich, under the private tutelage of Paul Nauen (1859-1932). He spent the majority of his painting career in New York City, where he earned particular fame for the more than 100 portraits of young New York City débutantes that he painted for the wealthy Peter Marié (1826-1903), a socialite, philanthropist and collector of rare books and portrait miniatures. An earnest exhibitor of his work, Weidner participated in exhibitions of the Society of American Artists (New York), the National Academy of Design (New York), the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (Philadelphia), the Society of American Miniature Painters (New York), the Paris Exposition of 1900, the Pan-American Exposition of 1901 (Buffalo, New York), the Saint Louis Exposition and the International Exposition (Munich). Listed by Benezit, Blättel (pages 952, 953).