Arnold Ronnebeck

Arnold Rönnebeck (May 8, 1885 – November 14, 1947) was a German-born American modernist artist and museum administrator. He was a vital member of both the European and American avant-garde movements of the early twentieth century before settling in Denver, Colorado. Rönnebeck is best known for his lithographs that featured a range of subjects including New York cityscapes, New Mexico and Colorado landscapes and Native American dances.

Arnold Rönnebeck was born in Nassau, Germany in 1885 to a well-educated family. His father, Richard, was an architect and encouraged Rönnebeck to follow in his footsteps. After two years of study at the Royal Art School in both Berlin and Munich, Rönnebeck decided to pursue sculpture and moved to Paris in 1908. In Paris, he studied with Aristide Maillol and Emile Antoine Bourdelle. Rönnebeck met the American Modernist painter, Marsden Hartley and they became close friends as they moved through the avant-garde circles of Paris and Berlin. He regularly attended Gertrude Stein’s “salons” and according to Stein, “Rönnebeck was charming and always invited to dinner,” together with Pablo Picasso, Mabel Dodge, and Charles Demuth. While living in Paris, Rönnebeck completed sculptural commissions for the wealthy and portraits of his friends. His bust of Marsden Hartley was included in Hartley’s 1914 solo show at Alfred Stieglitz’s Gallery 291.

The outbreak of World War I forced Rönnebeck to return to Germany where he fought on the front lines. He was wounded twice and was awarded the Iron Cross by Kaiser Wilhelm II. Arnold Rönnebeck’s cousin was Lieutenant Karl von Freyburg, whom Hartley would fall in love with and follow from Paris to Berlin. Freyburg was killed in combat, and Hartley would create Portrait of a German Officer (1914) as a tribute to Freyburg.

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