Jean Mannheim (1863-1945)

Jean Mannheim was born in Germany on November 18, 1863. After being drafted into the German army, Mannheim fled to France where he studied art at Ecole Delecluse, Académie Colarossi, and with DeLancey and Bouguereau. While studying in Paris, he was self-supported by the bookbinding trade, a skill set he learned at a young age.

Mannheim immigrated to Illinois in 1884, where he began painting portraits in Chicago and taught in a Decatur art school. About 1903 he accepted a position at Frank Brangwyn’s school in London and stayed for two years. Returning to the U.S., he taught at the Denver Art School until 1908. That year he made his final move to Pasadena, building his own home. Mannheim exhibited at the Blanchard Building in Los Angeles where his studio was located. In 1913 he founded the Stickney Memorial School of Fine Arts in Pasadena. He died in Pasadena on Sept. 6, 1945. His figural studies and landscapes prior to 1915 were tighter in form with a restricted palette; thereafter, his palette lightened as he adopted the loose brushwork of Impressionism. His landscape works hold a characteristically bright style.