Richard Lorenz

Born on a farm in Voigstaedt, Weimar, Germany, Richard Lorenz became a painter and illustrator of dramatic western scenes, especially of the Plains Indian culture and the consequences of encounters with the white man’s civilization. His most famous pupil was Frank Tenney Johnson. He was also well known for panoramic painting and for depictions of horses, genre and landscapes.

From 1887 to 1890, he travelled and sketched in the West including Oregon, Arizona, Colorado, Texas, and California. In 1887, he worked with August Lohr to install a panorama in San Francisco. While there he sketched scenes of Chinatown and Monterey. On this extensive trip, he went to the Crow Reservation, and from this experience, did his first Indian subjects inspired by stories he heard of the Sioux Massacre at Little Big Horn.