George Oberteuffer was born on October 31st, 1878 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He attended Princeton University and graduated in 1900. After graduation Oberteuffer enrolled in the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts along with fellow artists Thomas Anschutz and William Merritt Chase. In 1901 the artist traveled to France where he remained until 1920 to study, paint, and teach art. In 1905 while attending the Académie Julian in Paris, Oberteuffer met his future wife Henriette Amiard. The two often exhibited their works together, and it seemed as though their relationship contributed to the success of their mutual careers. While in Paris, Oberteuffer became a member of the Sociétaire du Salon d'Automne as well as the Salon des Indépendents. He also is known to have taught at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière from 1919 until 1920. Oberteuffer and his wife returned to the United States in 1922, and he began a brief tenure as an instructor at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. He then went on to teach at the Minneapolis Museum School of Art, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago as well as the Grand Central School of Art in New York. In 1939 Oberteuffer became a member of the National Academy of Design. In 1940 while George and Henriette Oberteuffer were living in Boston, The Vose Gallery held an Oberteuffer family exhibition that included the work of their son Karl. This exhibition would be the last one for George Oberteuffer. Sadly a short time afterwards while working on a large mural commission for the W.P.A. along with his wife, George Oberteuffer contracted pneumonia and died.
George Oberteuffer’s best and most sought-after works are those he painted during his nineteen-year stay in France. Inspired by the Luxembourg Gardens, and the architecture of northern France, Oberteuffer developed a fresh and vigorous style, using vibrant color and agile brushstrokes that was influenced by French Impressionism. Notre Dame, Paris is a perfect example of this style. Oberteuffer chose to highlight the cathedral’s relationship with its urban environment, focusing on the atmospheric conditions on a given day. This painting displays the presence of Notre Dame on a fall day. The artist is able to capture the contrast between the gray from both the sky and stone in front of the church with the vibrant greens from the garden in the foreground. In true impressionistic form, Oberteuffer chose to use strong, bright colors for the clothes of the people in front of Notre Dame. The wash of the sky combined with the impressionistic feel throughout the painting makes Notre Dame, Paris one of Oberteuffer’s strongest Notre Dame paintings.