Sam Stoltz was one of Orlando’s great artists. Stoltz grew up in Nebraska, and after studying commercial art at the Roose Business College in Omaha, his first job was at Star Engraving in Des Moines, Iowa. He moved to Chicago, worked for several advertising companies, and then opened his own studio. At one point his specialty was illustrating chickens. The American Poultry Journal called him, “The World’s greatest poultry painter.” In 1925 Stoltz left Chicago, for Orlando, Florida, to begin a career in real estate and home design. Working with real estate developer, Carl Dann, Stoltz designed Mediterranean Revival homes in the Orlando area; calling the style, Spanish Orlando. Stoltz’s love of birds and Florida fauna led him to decorate his homes, inside and out, with depictions of herons, flamingos, pelicans, cardinals, doves, fish, deer and even monkeys, all painted on plaster, relief and stucco, or in wrought iron. Hugh McKean, of Rollins College, commenting on Stoltz’s paintings said his murals, “remind you of the time when Florida’s birds and wildlife lived in peace.” Stoltz worked with an Orlando company, Flamingo Art’s, Inc., decorating hand bags with Florida scenes. The designs painted on silk by Stoltz, were then quilted and mounted on the bags. In 1933-34 Stoltz represented Florida at the Chicago Century of Progress International Exposition with four, floor to ceiling panels depicting animals in the woods or grazing in the pine hills; birds in precise detail; and a Florida inlet scene with fish, all framed in knobby cypress. Stoltz’s painting, The Strife of the Sea, exhibited at the Century of Progress, presents a scene of an actual story on the Florida coast, where a sailfish and a tarpon were hooked at the same time. “The lines crossed and a shark attacked the struggling, fighting fish. The shark’s dorsal fin is clearly visible as it darts to the attack, with the tarpon making mad leaps into the air and finally ridding its mouth of the torturing hook. Pelicans are hovering overhead and manasorior birds, ever present to attack the eyes of a hooked and defenseless tarpon, are seen flitting above while the bait is shown pushed high on the leader as the tarpon struck and the fisherman set the hook.” Sam Stolz was one of the most imaginative artists in Orlando, his beautiful nature paintings a lasting reminder of unspoiled, undeveloped, central Florida. Born: 1876. Died: December 10, 1952, Winter Park. Education: F. F. Roose Business College, Omaha, Nebraska.
