Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 08.djvu/129

 O'DONOVAN

O'FARRELL

O'DONOVAN, William Rudolf, sculptor, was born in Preston county, Va., March '28. 1^44; son of James Hayes and Mary (Bright) O'Donovan; grandson of Jeremiah and Jeuette (Dunbar) O'Donovan, who were forced to escape to Amer- ica in consequence of participation in the revolu- tion of 1798, and a descendant of the elder branch of the O'Donovans. He was self-taught in the sculptor's art. As a boy he served in the Con- federate army, and in 1865 he removed to New York city, where he opened a studio as a sculptor. He was elected an associate of the National Academy of Design in 1878, and a member of the Society of American Artists in 1880, of the Archi- tectural League in 1887, and of the National Sculpture society at its formation in 1896. The subjects of his many portrait busts and bas reliefs include: The Hon. John A. Kennedy (1876); Wil- liam Page, N.A., Winslow Homer, N.A., and Thomas Eakins of Philadelphia (1877): Erminnie A. Smith and R. Swain Gifford, N.A. (1879); Edmund C. Stedman, Arthur Quartley, N.A., Walt Whitman (1892); Gen. Joseph Wheeler (1896); President Charles P. Daly, for the Amer- ican Geographical society (1899), and the Hon. Andrew H. Green (1900). He also executed a memorial tablet to Bayard Taylor, for Cornell university; a statue of Archbishop Hughes, for St. John's college, Fordham, N.Y.; a statue of General Wagner, for Charleston, S.C; statues of Washington, for the government of Venezuela (1880); for the monument commemorating the peace of Newburgh, N.Y. (1886-87), and for the Trenton battle monument, and also for the inter- ior of the latter; a bust of Gen. William S. Stryker, late president of the Trenton Battle Monument association: equestrian statues of Lincoln and Grant, for the soldiers' and sailors' arch. Prospect Park, Brooklyn, N.Y.; a monu- ment to the captors of Andre at Tarrytown, N.Y.; two figures for the soldiers' monument at Law- rence, Mass.; two bas-reliefs for the monument commemorating the battle of Oriskany (1883), and many other works of equal importance. He is the author of a series of papers on the Portraits of Washington.

OERTEL, Johannes Adam, clergyman and artist, was born in Fiirth.near Nuremberg. Ba- varia, Nov. 3, 1823; eldest son of Thomas Friedrich and Maria Magdalena(Mennesd6rfer)0ertel. His father was a skilful worker in metals. He visited the art department of the Polytechnic institute at Nilremberg as a boy, but deciding to become a missionary began preparatory studies under the Rev. Willielm Loehe at Merkendorf, Bav., who in turn persuaded him to follow art, and i-ecom- mended him as a pupil to the noted engraver, J. M. Enzing-IMiiller, in Nilremberg, with whom he subsequently spent some years in Munich. In

the spring of 1848 they immigrated with some fel- low students to the United States, landing at New York, and Mr. Oertel was for a short time a teacher of art in Newark, N.J. He resided in Madison, N. J., until 1857, then in Brooklyn, N.Y., removing in 1861 to Westerly, R.I., where he built a commodious studio, which he occupied for seven years. In 1851 he was married to Julia Adelaide, daughter of Asa Torrey of New- ark, N.J. In 1867 he was admitted to the diaconate of the P. E. church at Christ church, Westerly, R. I., and in 1870 to the priesthood at Lenoir, N.C., in the parish church he served for seven years. Subsequently he was rector of Grace church, Morganton, N.C., for a year and a half; was active both as a clergyman and artist for one year in Florida, and then at Sewanee and Nashville, Tenn., and St. Louis, Mo., until 1891; for although he had no longer charge of any parish as rector, his services as a clergyman were almost constant, art constituting his means of support. His canonical residence remained in the diocese of Tennessee. For many years he was an associate member of the National Academy of Design, and he received the honorary degree of D.D. from the University of the South in 1899. For many years he devoted himself chiefly to Christian art, and his work is in numerous churches in New York, Glen Cove, L.I., Lenoir, N.C., St. Louis, Mo., Jackson, Tenn., Emmorton and Belair, Md.. and especially in Washington, D.C. To painting he joined elaborate carving in wood. The work by which he is widest known is TTie Rock of Ages, published in many ways, and painted at Westerly in 186'2. But the principal labor of his life is a series of four elaborate com- positions, delineating the grand epic of man's redemption, and embracing the whole scheme from after the Fall in Genesis to Revelation, of which the first painting is: TJie Dispensations of Promise and the Law; the second, The Redeemer; the third. The Dispensatioyi of the Holy Spint, and the fourth. The Filial Victory of Good over Evil (Rev. XX. from v. 11.), completed in 1901. This series on large canvasses, the artist donated to the University of the South, Sewanee, Tenn., where there are also several other of his paint- ings.

O'FARRELL, Michael Joseph, R.C. bishop, was born in Limerick, Ireland, Dec. 2, 1832. He attended the College of All-Hallows', and the Seminary of St. Sulpice, Paris, and was ordained in the Limerick cathedral, Aug. 18, 1855. He joined the Order of St. Sulpice. and was at the end of his novitiate appointed professor of dogmatic theology in the College of St. Sulpice. He immigrated to Canada, was appointed pro- fessor in the Seminary of St. Sulpice, Montreal; removed to the United States, entering the diocese