(Charles) Frederick Sitzler (1905-1990)

“Langton Breeze, Saratoga 1959”

Oil on Artist Board

16” x 20 “unframed

21.5” x 2.5” framed

Signed lower right

Provenance:

New Jersey Estate Tower Hill Farms

This is a wonderful oil painting of the racehorse “Langdon Breeze” who was the winner of the “Lovely Night Hurdle” in August of 1959.

New York Times:

“Langton Breeze First by 18 Lengths; CASTE RUNNER-UP IN HURDLES TEST Langton Breeze Winner at Saratoga — Alberta Pride Is Destroyed After Fall”

By Joseph C. Nichols  Aug. 28, 1959

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N. Y., Aug. 27 –

“Langton Breeze of the Tower Hill Farm was all alone at the finish of the Lovely Night Hurdle Handicap today. The feature event attracted only four jumpers and only three completed the course of about two miles…….”

Tower Hill Farms is the estate that belonged to the son of Isidor and Ida Straus. In 1888 Isidor and Nathan Straus acquired a percentage of R.H. Macy and Company, and by 1896 they had gained full ownership of the department store. Isidor served for a short time in the U.S. House of Representatives (1894–95) and in later years engaged in philanthropic works. He and his wife, Ida, perished aboard the ocean liner Titanic in 1912. (Although offered a seat in a lifeboat, Isidor refused to disobey the order of women and children first. Ida, in turn, would not leave her husband, reportedly saying, “Where you go, I go.”) Their son Jesse Isidor Straus became president of Macy’s in 1919 and was succeeded in that office by his son Jack Isidor Straus, who served as company president from 1939 to 1956.  After the Death on the Titanic, their son built the Tower Hill Farm in 1929. In 1949 James and Dorothy McConnell purchased the estate from the Straus family and has remained in the family until today.

Biography:

(Charles) Frederick Sitzler Jr was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on September 5, 1905.   He lived in Brooklyn, N.Y., Summit, New Jersey and settled in Westfield.

He attended school in Summit and graduated from Summit High School. He attended the Art Students League, the Parson School and the Grand Central School of Art, all in New York City.

He was a member of the Westfield Art Association and specialized in portraits and paintings of thoroughbred racehorses and dogs.  During his professional career, Mr. Sitzler painted many of the most famous thoroughbred champions of the times, including Native Dancer.  He was commissioned by the late Geraldine Rockefeller Dodge to paint her horses, Topper and Clover, as well as some of her favorite dogs.  He had commercial success with many art companies, including prints made by The Lambert Art Company and A Genuine Maleck Art Company.

In his later years, he painted portraits in oils and pastels of children and adults, including a portrait of former Westfield Mayor Robert Mulreany, which is in the collection in the Westfield Town Hall.

He passed away April 17, 1990.