German painter and professional photographer working as a painter in Sandhurst and Castlemaine and then Ballarat by 1863. He showed Sunday Creek, near Seymour in the fourth Annual Exhibition of Fine Arts at Melbourne in 1864. It was described by the Argus critic as 'stiff and chalky’. Two paintings by Tensfeld, Lal Lal Falls and Terriers Catching Rats , were exhibited by Richard Geilhofer for sale at the 1863 Ballarat Mechanics Institute Exhibition. Tensfeld’s oil painting Main Street, Daylesford (1862, p.c.) appears to have been painted over or from a photograph. Tensfeld is listed by Sandy Barrie as working as a photographer in Daylesford in 1862 and Seymour in 1864. Newspaper references in Ballarat 1863 report that Tensfeld painted over portraits for Solomon and Bardwell studio Tensfeld and may have learned photography from them. From May 1864 to January 1865 Tensfled was in partnership with scenic artist Moritz Freyberger at 92 Bourke Street, East Melbourne. Their dissolution notice in _The Age_18 Jan 1865,said Tensfeld was to pursue mining interests in Woods Point and Freyberger to work as a artist at the Theatre Royal. Tensfeld departed for New Zealand in 1866 taking over the studio of Tait Brothers in Greymouth, South Island in 1866. He worked as a photographer and painter attracting attention as well for large painted portrait photographs and his views photographs. Tensfeld departed for America in 1882 where he died.
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- Writers:
- Staff Writer
- Date written:
- 1992
- Last updated:
- 2021
