The American Cyclopædia (1879)/Rothermel, Peter F.

ROTHERMEL, Peter F., an American painter, born in Luzerne co., Pa., July 8, 1817. He was educated as a land surveyor, studied painting, and about 1840 commenced practice as a portrait painter. In 1856-'7 he visited France, Germany, and Italy, and painted his “St. Agnes,” now in St. Petersburg, and “The Foscari.” Some of his best known paintings are “De Soto discovering the Mississippi,” “Columbus before Isabella the Catholic,” the “Noche Triste,” from Prescott's “Conquest of Mexico,” “Patrick Henry before the Virginia House of Burgesses,” “Christian Martyrs in the Colosseum,” and “The Battle of Gettysburg,” in the state capital at Harrisburg.