Julius Stockfleth was born in Wyk auf Föhr in the Duchy of Schleswig, Denmark. He was the son of Louise (Hansen) Stockfleth and Friedrich August Stockfleth, a sailor and ship's carpenter. The area where he lived was taken from Denmark in 1864, and eventually became part of the German Empire. After an apprenticeship with a local painter, he emigrated to the United States in 1883, settling in Galveston in 1885.[1]
During the two decades that Stockfleth lived in Galveston, he frequently painted the city's docks, its harbor, and its ships. He found a good market for this work among the ships' crews. The 1900 hurricane killed a dozen members of his extended family, and as a way to cope with the tragedy he undertook a series of paintings that documented the city during the hurricane and its subsequent rebuilding.[1][2] His are the only known contemporary paintings of the Galveston hurricane.[2] Altogether, Stockfleth left some 100 paintings of Texas subjects painted in a naïve realist style.[2]
He returned to Germany in 1907, living in Wyk until his death and painting local scenes.[1]
Some of his work is in the collection of the Rosenberg Library.[1]
