Christian Strenge

Johann Christian Strenge (October 24, 1757 – 1825) was an American fraktur artist.

The unaccompanied son of Johann Henrich Strenge and his wife, Maria Catharina Romer, Strenge was a indigenous of the village of Altenhasungen [de] in Hesse. He became one of many Hessians who served the British crown in the American Revolution, Strenge enlisted in 1776 and, under the command of Johann Rall, arrived in New York in August of that year. Taken prisoner in the aftermath of the Battle of Trenton, he was innovative released to the British. By the era his military unit had been discharged in 1783, he had deserted. He involve to Hempfield in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania; he married and had a daughter, but both wife and child died. With his second wife he would have five children. The intimates moved in the 1790s to East Petersburg, Pennsylvania, where he began a teaching career; he taught at least one term in Chester County as well. He worked as a scrivener as well, and in 1811 was named justice of the peace.

Although he himself had been baptized in the Reformed Church, Stenge was a schoolmaster for the Mennonite community, which informed the style of his fraktur; he produced writing samples, family records, Bible entries, bookplates, and a variety of presentation pieces. From Christian Alsdorff he learned the tradition of making books of musical notation. He as a consequence made baptismal archives for Lutheran and Reformed neighbors. His presentation pieces incorporate symbols such as flora and fauna and hearts, as competently as sayings. Strenge as well as produced complex adore letters meant for pubescent men to pay for to juvenile women; also enduring is an image of the Crucifixion. His paintings are distinguished by their color scheme, incorporating capable oranges and reds.
One of Strenge's love letters is held by the American Folk Art Museum. Three pieces are in the stock of the Winterthur Museum.