Alfred Bruno Leopold Clausen (1883-1974), oil on canvas bust length portrait of Confederate General Robert E. Lee wearing his uniform, with white hair and beard, painted in front of a distant landscape with sunset at horizon, signed lower right "Clausen / A.B.L.", gilt wood cove-molded frame, egg and dart border, foliate corners, embellished with star applique at center of each side; painting 24"H x 20"W; frame 34"H x 30"W; painting with three small professional repairs, frame with small losses---Alfred Bruno Leopold Clausen was born in Altona, Hamburg Germany in 1883 to parents Andreas Christian Fernando Clausen and Johanna Sophia Jensen. He studied under Professor H. de Brucker at the Art Academy, Hamburg, and later in Genoa, Italy, under Professor Fileppini. Subsequently he traveled to Spain, France, Holland and Germany for even further study.A commission to decorate the German Kali Works at The Louisiana Purchase Exposition - informally known as the St. Louis World's Fair - brought him to the United States in 1903. He studied for three years in New York City at The Cooper Union and married Martha Alberts on October 21, 1905.In 1912 he painted a mural for the Columbus Ohio 1812-1912 Centennial. Clausen decorated the dining room in the Athletic Club in Columbus (dedicated 1915). Of this work it was said: "... ranks as an unique example of interior decoration. An original creation of a most unusual character, combining the beautiful effect of the, the Cloisonne vase with the color, life and delicacy of Oriental design. Flashing birds, pagodas, bridges, pools and gardens add their touch of color All is pervaded by a dreaming, a sort of mysticism."By 1920 he was living in Mifflin Township, Ohio and exhibited two oil paintings (both landscapes) in the Art League's Tenth Annual Exhibition in nearby Columbus. R.L. Polk & Co.'s Columbus City Directory for 1925, page 413, lists Clausen as the manager of The ABL Clausen Studio, 104 1/2 South High. He painted a ten by seven foot panel titled On the Way to Calvary for a Negro Church in Columbus and designed and painted ecclesiastical windows and mosaics in the area as well. Clausen lived in the Columbus area for a total of about 15 years.Sometime around the 1920s Clausen was chosen to paint the vaulted domes of the old and famous Moorish hotel in Tampa, Florida. Having spent many months in Algeria, Egypt, Morocco and Northern Africa, he was well prepared for this ambitious work. In depicting the story of the presentation of the key of the city to Gasparilla and his pirates, Clausen held true to historical tradition, with colorrich and inspiring. He remained in Florida for approximately five years, working on the Tampa Hotel commission and a panel in the Masonic Lodge in Tampa. That panel titled The Building of Solomon's Temple measured nine by thirteen feet.He lived and painted in Fort Worth Texas for about ten years (listed as living at 5533 Camp Bowie in the 1940 U.S. Census) where he was commissioned to do decorating and mural painting in the Masonic Temple. He performed similar work for the Methodist Church as well.Other large panels by Clausen are Baptism of Christ in Jordan, eight feet square, in the Baptist Church of Winchester, Kentucky. He also executed commissions for the Century of Progress in Chicago.Sometime after his residency at Fort Worth Clausen moved to the Phoenix area of Arizona where he continued to paint both religious and secular works. He died on September 8, 1974 in Mesa and was buried in Resthaven Park East Cemetery in Phoenix.(Portions of the above excerpted or paraphrased from Art and Artists of Texas by Esse Forrester O'Brien, published by the Tardy Publishing Company, Dallas Texas [1935]),