Ann Didusch Schuler

Born 1917 in Baltimore, Schuler was a fourth-generation artist whose ancestors trace back to Germany. She first trained at the Maryland Institute (now Maryland Institute College of Art), graduating in 1940, and continued at the Pennsylvania Academy of Art. Her adherence to the traditional techniques of draftsmanship were deeply ingrained. Her father James Didusch and his brother William studied with Max Brödel, a well-known medical illustrator at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Ann Didusch Schuler attached herself to the teachings of Jacques Maroger, who from 1930-1939 was technical director of the laboratory at the Louvre. Schuler served as his assistant for 21 years.

In 1945 the artist married noted sculptor Hans C. Schuler, Jr. His father Hans Schuler, Sr., also a sculptor, was director of the Maryland Institute from 1925-1951. In the 1940s the couple joined the faculty at the Maryland Institute. However, when the Maryland Institute became a growing proponent of modernism and began to eschew the school of realism, the Schulers left. In 1959 they opened the Schuler School of Fine Arts, a school that continues to teach in the apprentice manner. Artists learn to grind their own pigments, prepare canvases for oil paints, cast sculpture, draw from models, and stress draftsmanship.

Schuler’s work can be found in the National Museum for Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C.; the University of Maryland University College, Adelphi, Maryland; the Maryland Governor’s Mansion; and the Reserve Officers’ Memorial Building in Washington, D.C.