Artist Maximillian M. Sappelt (1857-1930)

Maximillian Sappelt and his parents Joseph and Ottillia Sappelt left the port of Hamburg, Germany on June 1, 1867 aboard the ship “Cimbria” bound for America.¹ They settled in New York City where Joseph Sappelt practiced medicine, and Max went to school.²

By 1880, Joseph had died. Maximillian and his mother had moved to Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania and were living at 61 W. Keller Street. Max’s occupation was listed as “artist, according to the 1880 U. S. Census.”³ Throughout the 1880s he painted portraits in the Mechanicsburg and Carlisle areas. An item in the November 13, 1886, issue of Carlisle’s Evening Sentinel reported that “Mr. M. Sappelt, of Mechanicsburg, PA., who is well known in Pennsylvania and New York as a portrait painter, and who has made quite a number of portraits for Carlisle, will pay this town a visit on Monday, November 15, 1886, to receive orders, and will stop at Fishell’s store. He can be seen from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. References can be seen.”

Maximillian was not just painting portraits. The following item appeared in a column titled “Mechanicsburg” in the January 30, 1890 issue of The Carlisle Weekly Herald. “M. Sappelt, the artist, has on exhibition in one of the large windows at the Philadelphia store, a drawing of the First National Bank building. It is done up in colors and is an exact counterpart of this handsome building. It has been admired my many of our people.” In 1893 the Harrisburg Daily Independent newspaper reported that Max had painted “a beautiful landscape and scenery of the buildings and farm of Mr. Robert Cornman of Trindle Spring.”⁴ In 1899, some of his works were on exhibition in the show windows of S. S. Diehl and D. C. Titzel in Mechanicsburg.⁵

Max was 34-years old in 1892 when he married 39-year-old Cora Eliza Danz.⁶ They lived in Mechanicsburg on West Green Street where Max opened a school of art and design in 1896.⁷ His school did not succeed, and in September, 1898 he took a job as the janitor of the Mechanicsburg Y.M.C.A. He must have quit shortly afterwards, because in 1900 he was living with his wife and his mother on South Howard Street in York, Pennsylvania.⁸

They were back in Mechanicsburg by 1901 where Max found work painting signs; for the Stevens Cash Store in 1901 and the Mechanicsburg Post Office windows in 1904. The 1910 Census records Max as single, although his wife was recorded as living with her sister’s family in Penn Township, Cumberland County. In 1911 Max’s mother fell down the steps in their home and fractured her hip. She was taken to the hospital in Harrisburg where she died on October 13. Max’s wife Eliza died of tuberculosis on November 11, 1912. She is buried in the Huntsville Church of the Brethren Cemetery in Penn Township.

A widower, Max began a job as a janitor at Mechanicsburg’s Arch Street School in 1912; a job he would keep until 1919 when he moved to Carlisle.⁹ He rented a house in Carlisle at 337 W. Penn Street and advertised that he gave lessons in drawing and painting at his place or at his client’s homes. He also did “plain and fancy sign writing of every description , style and size, at reasonable rates.”¹⁰

“FINE PICTURE. M. Sappelt, artist and art instructor 337 West Penn Street, has a magnificent picture on exhibition in the office of C. M. Liggett, real estate. It is a work of real art and must be seen to be appreciated,” exclaimed the Evening Sentinel in the August 4, 1920 edition of the newspaper. Sadly, the subject of the painting was not described. In July 1923, the newspaper commented on the “beautifully lettered window of the Salvation Army Hall on South Bedford Street” in Carlisle that was done by Sappelt.¹¹ His masterpiece was yet to come.

“Painting on exhibition. The large, lifesize dioramic oil painting representing Christ blessing the children will be on exhibition at 337 West Penn Street, this Saturday from 5 to 6:30 p.m. Lovers of art and art critics invited. M. Sappelt, Artist.”¹² Four years later, Sappelt gifted the painting to St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Carlisle. On April 16, 1928, The Evening Sentinel reported that “The picture, ‘Christ Blessing Little Children,’ painted and presented to the church by Morris Sappelt, has been framed and will be hung in one of the rooms.”

Maximillian Morris Sappelt did not have long to live. In February 1928 he placed the following ad in the newspaper. “WANTED—One or two rooms suitable for lodging and cooking by a middle-aged man. Address M. Sappelt, care Mr. Woods, 32 N. East.”¹³ Maximillian Sappelt ended his days at the County Home where he died in 1930. His obituary stated:

“Morris Sappelt, aged about 65 years, a resident of Carlisle for many years, died this morning at 3:30 o’clock at the County Home. He was an artist by profession and studied in New York and Philadelphia. Many of his paintings now hang in Carlisle homes. He was a former sexton of the Church of God and for several years did general painting. Funeral services will be held tomorrow afternoon at 1 o’clock from the Shulenberger funeral parlors, West High Street. Burial will be made in the Old Graveyard.”¹⁴

Anyone who knows the whereabouts of any of his paintings is asked to contact the Museum Curator at the Cumberland County Historical Society at www.historicalsociety.com