Two Dead Leaf Butterflies

This painting shows two dead leaf butterflies (Kallima inachus) on a branch with dead leaves and a shriveled berry. The butterfly on the left has its wings open, exposing its beautifully colored pattern of bright orange, blue and browns. The butterfly on the right shows a profile view, displaying its distinctive wings that look just like a dead leaf, with faded browns, blemish spots, and jagged edges.

This work was made possible by a bequest from Viola Ertz Kettner, a daughter of Bruno Ertz. The painting is signed and dated in the lower right corner.

Bruno Ertz was a self-taught artist born in Manitowoc, Wisconsin in 1873 to German immigrant parents. He received his basic education in Manitowoc. In 1886, he was gifted a watercolor set for Christmas, which spurred his love of art. Ertz worked in local factories and shipyards until he was fifteen but soon decided to pursue a career in art.

In his early career, Ertz focused on delicate, hyper-realistic watercolor miniatures of birds, butterflies, and insects, drawing on a great American tradition of naturalist painters. He often studied each specimen under a microscope to achieve perfect realism. He sent a packet of his miniature watercolors to F. H. Crittenden at the Smithsonian Institution who replied, “I have carefully examined your work and have shown it to members of the divisional force. We all think the paintings are the finest of their sort that have even been produced in this country.”

By 1890, Ertz moved to Milwaukee and opened a studio in the Iron Block building with Frank H. Bressler, of Bressler Gallery, from 1891 through 1892. In 1896, he moved to Detroit and became partners with Percy Cuthberg Nash opening Nash and Ertz, Portrait Artist, until 1898.

He returned to Milwaukee in 1900, sharing a studio space with artists Elizabeth Brah and Lillian E. Rumpel in the University building, but returned to Manitowoc and lived there from 1918 through the 1920s.

During the depression, Ertz moved to Milwaukee and worked under the Federal Art Project at the Milwaukee Public Museum, where he later acquired a staff position. In 1948, he moved to Elgin, Illinois.

Ertz was part of the flourishing artistic community that developed in Milwaukee in the last two decades of the 19th century. Through his friendship with Frank H. Bressler, his work became part of the major art collections in the city of Milwaukee, including those at the Charles Allis, the Milwaukee Public Museum and the West Bend Art Museum (now The Museum of Wisconsin Art).

In total, there are 30 Bruno Ertz paintings in the Charles Allis Art Collection; six were purchased by the Allises directly from Bruno Ertz between 1912-1915; 17 were donated in a bequest by Ertz’s daughter, Viola Ertz Kettner; and seven were donated to the Coach House Collection by both Viola Ertz Kettner and Gladys Ertz Taluc.

Photography by Kevin Miyazaki.