1885
May: Arnold Rönnebeck (Heinrich Oskar Arnold Rönnebeck) born Nassau, Germany (then Prussia) to Richard and Anna Rönnebeck.
1905
Graduates from Dorotheen Reel Gymnasium, Berlin.
1905-1907
Studies architecture at the Royal Art School, Berlin.
1907-1908
Studies sculpture at Royal Art School, Munich.
1908
Moves to Paris, France to study sculpture. Studies with Aristide Maillol (exact dates and location unknown, possibly Académie Ranson).
1910-1913
Studies sculpture with Émile-Antoine Bourdelle at Académie de la Grande Chaumière, Paris, France.
1912
Spring: Meets Marsden Hartley at Restaurant Thomas, Paris.
Frequent guest of Gertrude Stein at her Saturday “evenings”.
October 1-November 8: Portrait Marsden Hartley (bronze), Portrait of Mme L (plaster), and Statuette of a Young Girl (plaster) exhibited at Salon d’Automne, Paris, France.
Executes a series of drawings and watercolors of Isadora Duncan.
1913
November 1913-January 1914: Portrait of Charles Demuth (plaster) and Portrait of a Young Woman (plaster) exhibited at Salon d’Automne, Paris, France.
1914
January-February: Rönnebeck’s c1912 bronze Head of Marsden Hartley is shown in the “Exhibition of Paintings by Marsden Hartley of Berlin and New York” at Alfred Stieglitz’s Gallery 291 in New York, New York.
1914-1918
Serves as an officer in the German Imperial Army. Receives Iron Cross First Class, Iron Cross Second Class and the Cross of Hanseates. Injured in the line of duty in October 1914. Upon release from the hospital continues to serve until the end of the war.
October 7, 1914: Carl von Freyburg, Arnold’s cousin, was killed in battle in Arras, near Amiens, France.
1918
Returns to Berlin.
1920-1921
Travels throughout Italy with German writer Max Sidow and German poet Theodor Daubler. Executes a series of drawings and lithographs of Positano and the Amalfi Coast.
1923
Berlin. Executes two Marsden Hartley heads and two Marsden Hartley masks.
November: Arrives in the United States. Lives in Glendale, Maryland, followed by New York, New York.
1924
February-March: Exhibits Dancing Youths aka Arcadia, Portrait of Marsden Hartley and Positano lithograph in the Corcoran Gallery’s exhibition of the Society of Washington Artists, Washington, DC.
April: Gives a series of lectures on modern art in Europe and America at the Art Center in Washington, DC, entitled “Oil Scandals in Paris”, The Secret of Pygmalion” and “The Sioux, the Skyscrapers, Jazz and Other Possibilities”.
August: Spends some time in Lake Placid, New York. Executes various portrait busts and drawing of Mirror Lake.
October: Spends one week as the guest of Alfred Stieglitz at his Lake George, New York home. Takes photographs of Stieglitz photographing Georgia O’Keeffe.
1925
March: Rönnebeck’s essay, “Through the Eyes of a European Sculptor”, appears in the catalog for the Anderson Gallery exhibition, “Alfred Stieglitz Presents Seven Americans: 159 Paintings, Photographs & Things, Recent & Never Publicly Shown, by Arthur G. Dove, Marsden Hartley, John Marin, Charles Demuth, Paul Strand, Georgia O’Keeffe, Alfred Stieglitz.”
April-May: Exhibits over sixty works in solo exhibition at Weyhe Gallery, New York. “Sculpture, Drawings and Lithographs by Arnold Rönnebeck”.
July: Travels to Taos, New Mexico to stay as the guest of Mabel Dodge Luhan at her ranch, Los Gallos. Executes a series of drawings, watercolors and lithographs of Southwestern themes. Meets artist Louise Harrington Emerson (1901-1980).
October 1925-February 1926: Travels to Omaha, Nebraska to execute Grief, a monument for the Mengedoht family. Executes several portrait busts of prominent Omaha citizens. Exhibits eight sculptures at the Omaha Society of Fine Arts.
1926
March: Marries Louise Harrington Emerson in New York. The couple travels throughout the west with stops in Mexico, San Diego, Los Angeles and Denver.
April: Exhibits sculpture Fine Arts Gallery in San Diego, California.
May: Exhibition, “Drawings by Arnold Rönnebeck” at the Chappell House, Denver Art Museum, Denver, Colorado.
June: Exhibits sculpture at Los Angeles Museum in Los Angeles, California. Fine Arts Gallery in San Diego, California.
June: Begins weekly column in the Rocky Mountain News, Denver.
Settles in Denver, Colorado and becomes the Director of the Denver Art Museum.
1927
February: Son Arnold Emerson Ronnebeck born.
Summer: Spends the summer in Santa Fe executing a series of relief panels for the La Fonda Hotel, Santa Fe, New Mexico.
1928
February: Acts as translator for French composer Maurice Ravel for an interview for the Rocky Mountain News. Ravel stopped in Denver during his four month tour of North America.
Completes terra cotta relief panels for the La Fonda Hotel, Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Completes reredos entitled Madonna and Child at St. Martin’s Chapel, Denver, Colorado.
Completes six terracotta panels entitled The History of Money for the mezzanine of the Denver National Bank, Denver, Colorado.
Receives gold medal from the Kansas City Art Institute for his lithograph, The Atlantic.
1929
March-September: The Dancer included in Ralph T. Walker’s exhibit, “Man’s Study for a Country House” at The Architect and Industrial Arts Exhibition of Contemporary American Design, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York.
May: Daughter Annamarie Ursula Ronnebeck born.
June-August: Sails to Germany with Louise on the S.S. Dresden, returns on the Hamburg Amerika Line.
May-June: Exhibits Wall Street in The Exhibition of Contemporary American Prints at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, England.
June: Resigns as Director of the Denver Art Museum.
December: Exhibits lithograph, From the Tribune Tower at the Second International Exhibition of Lithography and Wood Engraving at the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois.
1931
Completes The Ascension reredos for Church of the Ascension, Denver, Colorado.
1932
February: Exhibition “Arnold Rönnebeck: Sculpture and Photographs” at the Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, Texas.
July 16-23: Appears in play, Camille, at the grand reopening of the Central City Opera House in Central City, Colorado. Lillian Gish starred as Camille. Rönnebeck as Saint Gaudens.
1933
Becomes a U.S. citizen.
August 5-19: Appears in The Merry Widow at Central City Opera House in Central City, Colorado. Gladys Swarthout and Richard Bonelli starred. Rönnebeck played the part of Nisch.
December: Exhibits sculpture entitled Waste in the Biennial Exhibition of Contemporary American Sculpture, Watercolors and Prints at the Whitney Museum, New York, New York.
1934
June-November. Exhibits brass sculpture entitled The Dancer (executed in 1921), at the Century of Progress World’s Fair in Chicago, Illinois.
Executes bas-relief aluminum friezes of stylized Pueblo and Hopi Indian Kachina masks for the auditorium of the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, Colorado Springs, Colorado.
1937
February: Exhibits in Society of American Etchers at the National Arts Club, New York, New York.
Executes Ways of the Mail, three terra cotta relief panels for the Longmont, Colorado Post Office as part of the Treasury Department’s Section of Fine Arts program.
1938
March: Exhibits sculpture Homage to Maurice Ravel in the Biennial Exhibition of Contemporary American Sculpture, Watercolors and Prints at the Whitney Museum, New York, New York.
1939
Member, Rocky Mountain Preview Committee for the Exhibition of Contemporary American Art for the World’s Fair 1939, New York.
October-November: Exhibits lithograph Chicken Pull in Contemporary American Prints at the Grolier Club, New York, New York.
1943
January: Exhibits fifteen surrealist oil paintings at Chappell House, Denver, Colorado.
May-June: Exhibits fifteen surrealist oil paintings at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, California.
1947
November 14: Arnold Rönnebeck dies of throat cancer in Denver, Colorado.
He is buried, along with his wife, Louise Harrington Emerson (1901-1980), at Thompson Memorial Cemetery, New Hope, Bucks County, Pennsylvania.