Charles Frederick William Mielatz (1864-1919)

Charles Frederick William Mielatz was born in Bredding, Germany in 1864. He immigrated to the United States as a young boy and studied at the Chicago School of Design. Mostly self-taught, his first prints were large New England landscapes reminiscent of the painter-etcher school of American Art. Around 1890 he started to produce prints of New York City and by the time of his death, the number totaled over ninety images. He was a master technician in the field of etching, reworking many of his plates to get the exact feeling he was seeking. It was not unusual for him to have three or more states of a print in an edition run. On some he would simply reduce the plate size, on others, he would remove entire sections of the image to redraw it. He was one of the early pioneers of multi-plate color etchings in this country. Mary Cassatt’s color etchings may have influenced him.

Charles Mielatz was a member of the New York Etching Club and was elected an Associate Member of the National Academy in 1906. He succeeded James David Smillie as the etching teacher at the National Academy, a position he held for 15 years. According to Wilson’s Index of American Print Exhibitions, 1882-1940, he was involved in nine group exhibitions including the New York Etching Club, The Brooklyn Society of Etchers, and posthumously at the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1929. He died in New York City on June 2, 1919.