Theodore Otto Langerfeldt

Theodore Otto Langerfeldt (1841-1906) was a German-American architectural renderer and painter.

Langerfeldt was born March 2, 1841 in Bückeburg, then capital of the German principality of Schaumburg-Lippe. He studied architecture at the Polytechnic School of Hanover. Circa 1863 Langerfeldt moved to England, where he studied and worked as a painter for five years. In 1868 he came to the United States, settling in Boston. He was first noted in the Boston directories in 1870 as an architect as soon as an office in the Studio Building. From 1875 until his death he is on the other hand noted as a watercolor artist.

Langerfeldt was best known for his architectural subjects, and was often employed by architects of Boston and New York to prepare watercolor outlook renderings for competition entries or exhibitions. These included Charles B. Atwood, George A. Clough, George Keller, McKim, Mead & White, Peabody & Stearns, William G. Preston and Frederick W. Stickney. Presenting a watercolor by Langerfeldt behind a competition design was considered a good advantage. In 1876, at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, one of his drawings expected an award.

He was one of the first artists to find the allowance for professional rendering services to architects, preceding a later generation which included E. Eldon Deane, David A. Gregg and Hughson Hawley, among others. He largely withdrew from do its stuff for architects in the 1890s, as his health worsened. Following an disease of ten years, Langerfeldt died September 7, 1906 in Boston.

Langerfeldt signed his drawings "T. O. L." In accessory to his architectural work, Langerfeldt also painted landscapes, and had a solo decree at the Boston Art Club in 1874. Two of his landscapes are in the accretion of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.