Born in Vienna, Austria, Gottwald imigrated with his family to Cleveland in 1862. He studied privately with Archibald Willard at the artists’s studio in Cleveland, 1875–80, then went to New York for a year of classes taught by William Merritt Chase at the Art Students League. Gottwald then traveled to Munich and attended the Kunstakademie, 1882–85. Returning to Cleveland, he began teaching at the Western Reserve School of Design for Women and remained on the facility until retiring in 1926. He frequently participated in local group exhibitions at the Art Club, the Brush and Palette Club, the Cleveland School of Art, and the Cleveland Museum of Art. He also showed at the Boston Art Club and the National Academy of Design in New York. Around the turn of the century, he made several summer painting trips to Holland. Beginning in 1903, the Cleveland School of Art mounted the first of many solo exhibitions of his paintings. From 1907 to 1915 he produced a series of landscapes created during annual summer excursions to Italy. He exhibited these works, which yielded his greatest critical and popular acclaim, on a regular basis at the Cleveland School of Art. He was instrumental in founding the Cleveland Society of Artists in 1913. During the 1920s he painted in Italy, Southern France, Spain, and North Africa. His last exhibition was held in Cleveland (1931). The following year Gottwald retired to Pasadena, where he died.
"Transformations in Cleveland Art" (CMA, 1996), p. 229