Edward J. Riegel

Edward J. Riegel was a portrait painter and muralist from Western New York. He was born in Buffalo on April 15, 1891 to Joseph and Anna Riegel. He died December 17, 1956 at the age of 65. He had two brothers, John and Frank. He is buried in Mt. Calvary Cemetery, Cheektowaga, New York.

Riegel was listed as a photographer in the 1908 Buffalo City Directory. From 1910 till his death, he was listed as an artist and sometimes as a commercial artist. He studied portrait painting at the Albright Art School and later continued his studies under a French artist in the latter's St. Louis studio. Five of Riegel's portraits still hang in Buffalo’s City Hall. These include President Millard Fillmore and Buffalo Mayor Charles E. Roesch which hang in the mayor's office. His portraits of three former Buffalo Council presidents--Hon. John A. Ulinski,  Hon. William M. Eberhardt and Hon. George W. Wanamaker--can be found in the Buffalo Council Chambers.

During the 1930s, the Works Project Administration paid many artists to paint portraits of famous people in American history as well as large murals depicting historic scenes. This artwork was to hang in public buildings, schools, museums, and other buildings. Edward Riegel was one of those artists. Riegel and Charles Greil painted a mural of Abraham Lincoln standing with four other men on a balcony of the Old American Hotel in Buffalo which still hangs in the Buffalo History Museum. With Willis Hykes he co-painted a large mural called Safari on glazed bricks on the wall of the Buffalo Zoo's feline house. The building is unfortunately no longer open to the public.

During his long career, he painted portraits of some of Buffalo's most distinguished citizens, including the Most Rev. Joseph A. Burke, Bishop of the Buffalo Catholic Diocese, and potentates of Ismailia Temple of the Shrine. His portrait of the late Dr. Edward J. Meyer hung in the main lobby of the Edward J. Meyer Memorial Hospital which was replaced by the new Erie County Medical Center in 1977. (The current location of this portrait is unknown.) He was also responsible for 16 oil portraits and 36 sketches of scientists for the Buffalo Museum of Science, as well as 40 oil portraits of key personalities from the early days of the Niagara Frontier for Fort Niagara.

During the last 15 years of his career, Riegel was employed by the Schalk Studio, 1152 Main Street, as a portrait and commercial artist. He did airbrush and restoration work as well as miniatures in addition to portraits.

Profile information furnished by Richard H. Wedekindt (Amherst, N.Y.).