Christian Schussele

Christian Schussele (born 16 April 1824 in Guebwiller, Alsace – 20 August 1879 in Merchantville, New Jersey) was an American artist and teacher, and is certified with designing the American Medal of Honor. He studied below Adolphe Yvon and Paul Delaroche 1842–1848 and later came to the United States. Here, for some time, he worked at chromolithography which he had then pursued in France. Later he devoted himself a propos entirely to painting.

His Men of Progress (1857) featured a bureau portrait of nineteen American inventors and innovators. While all those portrayed were nevertheless alive, they had never met as a action but were composed from existing individual portraits. It is now housed in Cooper Union, New York City;

Other renowned works include Clear the Track (1851); Franklin before the Lords in Council (1856); Zeisberger preaching to the Indians (1859); The Iron-Worker and King Solomon (1860); Washington at Valley Forge (1862); McClellan at Antietam (1863); and Home upon Furlough (1864).

About 1863, he was attacked by palsy in the right hand. In 1865, he went abroad and underwent harsh treatment subsequent to no apparent benefit. On his return, in 1868, he was elected to fill the chair, then founded, of drawing and painting in the Pennsylvania Academy, which he held until his death. During this epoch he produced Queen Esther denouncing Haman, owned by the Academy (1869), and The Alsatian Fair (1870). Most of the paintings that have been named became widely known through large prints by John Sartain and further engravers.

Painter Thomas Eakins covered Schussele's classes like he was too sick to teach. Eakins succeeded Schussele as scholastic of painting and drawing at the Academy.