 The following was written and submitted by Tom Curran, art researcher and appraiser: Prinz is a surprisingly mysterious figure considering the quality of his paintings and his prominence in the New York art world of the 1890's.
Emil and his older brother Charles J Prinz were well known art dealers and frame makers based in downtown Brooklyn, New York. Both traveled regularly to France in this capacity, and shipping records confirm that both were American citizens, Emil born in 1856, Charles in 1853. The Smithsonian archives in Washington, DC hold records from the business.
Emil's large oils of cows in pastoral settings were exhibited regularly in New York and Brooklyn in the 1890's, including the National Academy in 1896, alongside works of George Inness, Maurice De Haas, Harry Roseland, Edward Moran, Carleton Wiggins and Samuel Colman. Prinz exhibited at New York's National Academy. The Brooklyn Eagle reviewed an 1894 exhibition, noting that "Herr Emil Prinz and James M. Hart, the famous cattle painters, have superb paintings here, masterly in drawing and colors..."
The 'superb' quality of Prinz's paintings still compares very favorably with those of Hart, an artist with whom Prinz was linked, but whose work commands far higher prices.
A. Emil Prinz may have fallen into obscurity because of false assumptions that he was European, as well as through the loss of an independent Brooklyn artistic identity after its absorption into Greater New York in 1898.
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