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MORAVIAN COUPLE HOME 237 YEARS LATER

Morning Call - Allentown, Pa. Author: JENNIFER RITENOUR, The Morning Call

Copyright Morning Call Oct 30, 1991

Two hundred thirty-seven years after they first settled in Bethlehem, John and Johanetta Ettwein have returned to the Lehigh Valley to take up permanent residence in Nazareth.

Portraits of the early Bethlehem residents, painted by 18th century Moravian artist John Valentine Haidt, recently were donated to the Moravian Historical Society by the couple's great-great-great- great grandson, Henry Mebus of Nazareth.

"He walked in carrying a catalog of the Haidt exhibit and asked me if I was aware of Haidt," said Susan Dreydoppel, the society's executive director. "He said he had two pictures and was looking for a home for them."

The paintings had been on loan to the Metropolitan Museum of Art since 1974, but changes in collections and displays prompted the museum to return them to Mebus and his wife, Violet, earlier this year.

"They were significant to them because they were his great-great- great-great grandparents, but not for any other reason," Dreydoppel said. "They realized that the portraits were significant to other people around here and would be better in a museum than a living room."

Shortly after first discussing the donation with Dreydoppel, Mebus returned and told her he decided they should be at Whitefield House Museum in Nazareth. He brought them with him at that time.

The paintings are important because of both the artist and the subjects.

Haidt was among the earliest colonial American artists to paint religious subjects in oils. He also painted several portraits of early Moravian settlers, providing today's researchers with information about Moravian clothing in the 18th century.

"Most of the Haidt paintings we know of are in Moravian hands," Dreydoppel said.

She said the historical society has most of the religious paintings and a few of the portraits, while the Moravian Archives has the majority of the portraits and a few of the religious paintings.

She said the society gets requests from major art publishers for Haidt paintings to include in art surveys.

The Ettwein portraits were two of three Haidt paintings known to be in private hands, Dreydoppel said. She said there could be others that were not attributed to Haidt, because he rarely signed his works.

The Ettwein portraits were painted in 1754, the year the Ettweins and Haidt came to America.

"The Ettweins came over on the same boat as John Valentine Haidt and the family legend says the portraits were done on the voyage," Dreydoppel said.

The portraits depict Ettwein as a young man rather than the older, more stern man shown in later portraits. The portrait of Mrs. Ettwein is the only one known to exist.

Ettwein, a Moravian minister, became the Moravian church's chief spokesman to the Continental Congress during the Revolutionary War. He helped minimize the effects of the war on the Moravian community, and often visited sick and wounded soldiers when the Brethren's House in Bethlehem was used as a military hospital.

He traveled throughout the United States, but Bethlehem remained his home. He and his wife are buried in God's Acre.

Less is known about the portraits.

Their history prior to the 1920s is a mystery. They were lent by Mebus' grandmother to Northampton County Historical and Geneaological Society in Easton, where they were on display for years. Mebus then lent them to the Metropolitan Museum, which did conservation work on the paintings.

Their future is more certain.

The portraits have been added to the "Favored Bethlehem" exhibit on display at Whitefield House. The exhibit runs through January 1992.

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