Adolph Robert Shulz

Adolph Robert Shulz (June 12, 1869 – January 24, 1963) was an American painter (landscape and portrait) and educator active in Delavan, Wisconsin, and Brown County, Indiana. 

Life and career

Adolph Robert Shulz was born on June 12, 1869, in Delavan, Wisconsin. Growing up, he often hiked with his father and made sketches of the woods and wildlife. 

After studying with a local commercial artist Albert McCoy, Shulz attended the Art Institute of Chicago and studied under John Vanderpoel in 1887. He then moved to New York where he studied at the Art Students League of New York with William Merritt Chase and Henry Siddons Mowbray. He also studied at Academy Julian in Paris, France, and spent some time in Munich, Germany.

While attending the Art Institute of Chicago, he met his future wife, Ada Walter, also a Wisconsin artist, in a class she was taking. The two became friends and were married in the summer of 1894. Together they had a son, named Walter Shulz (1895-1918).

In 1895, Shulz returned to Delavan, Wisconsin, and lived there for the next twenty years. During this time, he was active in the Chicago art world, encouraging Art Institute of Chicago instructors, John Vanderpoel and Charles Boutwood to send their students to Delavan to take art classes from him. He was a master in painting tonal landscapes, in the Impressionist style.

In the early 1900s, he regularly visited Brown County in Indiana, where he would paint the rugged scenery and nature. In 1917, he moved there permanently with his family and established the Brown County Art Association, attracting other gifted Midwestern artists to the area. 

Shulz also taught art at the Ringling School Of Art in Sarasota, Florida. He was also listed as a W.P.A. artist. His work is known to be in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, Indianapolis Museum of Art, and the West Bend Art Museum.

Affiliations and memberships

• Chicago Galleries Association
• Indiana Artists Club
• Chicago Society of Artists
• Brown County Art Gallery Association
• The Chicago Palette and Chisel Club
• Wisconsin Painters and Sculptors
• Sarasota Art Association.

Personal life

Shulz was married twice. He married his first wife Ada Walter in 1894. They had a son, Walter Shulz (1895-1918). After their divorce in 1926, Shulz married one of his students, Alberta Rehm, who was twenty years younger than him. 

Death

Shulz died on January 24, 1963, in Nashville, Indiana, at the age of 93.