final program - Canadian Association of Geographers

Cover Illustrations Courtesy of the
Robert Langen Art Gallery, Woldemar Neufeld Collection
Wilfrid Laurier University
Woldemar Neufeld (1909 - 2002)
As a young boy living in pre-Revolutionary Russia, Woldemar Neufeld would sit with his engineer father and
examine his beloved mentor's drawings and designs. This inquisitive nature helped to set the foundations for
Neufeld's later artistic career.
Born on November 10, 1909 in Waldheim, southern Russia to prosperous Mennonite parents, Neufeld
enjoyed a happy and carefree childhood. At the age of ten, Neufeld expressed his desire to become an artist.
Unfortunately, his aspirations were cut short by the outbreak of the Russian revolution and subsequent
political execution of his father Heinrich Neufeld in 1920.
The years following his father's death were filled with upheaval, and devastation for the Neufeld family. In
1923, his mother Eliese Reimer married Jacob H. Janzen, a leading Mennonite minister and within a year the
large blended family emigrated to the community of Waterloo, Ontario.
Now settled in a secure and enriching environment, Neufeld began to focus on his artistic career. He attended
Waterloo College, now known as Wilfrid Laurier University from 1927 to 1930 and after graduation enjoyed a
productive career as a commercial artist. He opened an art studio at 62 King Street South in Waterloo, helped
establish the Kitchener-Waterloo Society of Artists, and studied in the evenings at the Ontario College of Art
in Toronto.
Following the encouragement of Canadian painter Homer Watson, Neufeld left Canada to pursue formal
artistic training. He enrolled in The Cleveland Institute of Art from 1935 to 1939 and was awarded the prestigious
Agnes Gund Scholarship for his portfolio of Canadian sketches and paintings. Longing to be in New York City,
Neufeld moved to the city in 1945 and devoted himself to documenting the area and working with children
in the settlement house movement.
In 1949, Neufeld and wife, Waterloo-born Peggy Conrad, decided to move their young family to New Milford,
Connecticut. It is here that Neufeld established his final working studio, gallery and summer art school. In this
tranquil setting, Neufeld excelled at his technique and produced a variety of ambitious block prints, oils and
watercolours.
His works of art are included in such collections as the Berkshire Museum, Massachusetts; Conrad Grebel
College, Ontario; Library of Congress, Washington; New Milford; Historical Museum, Connecticut; South Street
Seaport Museum, New York; The Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York;
The New Britain Museum of American Art, Connecticut; Vancouver Art Gallery, British Columbia; and Wilfrid
Laurier University, Ontario.
In the fall of 1988 Woldemar Neufeld was awarded an honourary Doctor of Letters degree from Wilfrid Laurier
University.