Fritz G. Vogt

“Fritz Vogt Drawings: A Sense of Place,” Arkell Museum, Canajoharie, NY, May 29—December 31, 2021.

Between 1890 and 1900 itinerant folk artist Fritz G. Vogt roamed the turnpikes and dirt roads of five New York Counties west of Albany [Montgomery, Schoharie, Otsego, Fulton, and Herkimer]. By the time of his death on January 1, 1900, Vogt had created more than 200 distinctive architectural portraits featuring farms, homes, and businesses. Suggesting a draftsman’s training, Vogt’s linear drawings include an extraordinary amount of detail while imbuing the subject with a romanticized sense of optimism and pride of place…The result is a window into the artist’s personal perspective and his patron’s motivations, as well as a striking representation of the region’s architecture, commerce, and social history. Drawn Home: Fritz Vogt’s Rural America, 2022

Fritz Vogt was born in Germany in the 1840s and arrived in America around 1890. The popularity of his drawings was likely spurred by the rise of the industrial revolution, the growing nostalgia for idyllic rural settings, and pride of personal ownership. His linear, detail-oriented style ignores strict rules of perspective in order to include as many details as possible, making his work an exceptional visual record of late nineteenth century rural life.

“Yes, that is how he made his living…when he was out drawing, inspecting, he had a word for that in his language…What he meant was that he just take a picture of it in his mind, don’t you know—to put down on the pad. Angie Empie Douglass, 1968, remembering Fritz Vogt

Organized by the Arkell Museum, Fritz Vogt Drawings: A Sense of Place includes work from the collections of the Arkell Museum, The Farmers’ Museum, the Fenimore Art Museum, and a private collector. This exhibition is made possible in part by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, and by support from our members and visitors.