Descendant seeks aunt's lost artwork

Andrew Kamban never met his great-great-aunt, but he feels a connection to her and her artwork and is on a search to find as many of her paintings as he can.

Lena Rippel moved to Second Avenue in Windermere in 1946 and lived there until her death in 1985 at the age of 95. She was a successful banker and financial advisor, Kamban said, and she had a passion for painting. He owns a few of her watercolors and knows there probably are many more out there.

His desire to discover more about his ancestor was sparked when relatives were searching for artwork by C.J. Brobst, Kamban’s great-grandfather, who made his living as an artist. Family members found several of his pieces for sale at flea markets and purchased any they found.

Kamban, a New Philadelphia, Ohio, resident, is interested in genealogy and discovered the family had more than one talented artist. Once he started finding relatives in his family tree, he started asking about Rippel’s work and learned several people in California had some of her art.

He has photographs of all the pieces he has located, and he has a few of the actual paintings.

“My grandpa had two of Lena’s paintings, and a cousin of his gave me a piece a few years ago,” Kamban said. “I visited them in Florida, they had a watercolor she did.”

One of them is a winter scene with an interesting story behind it. Kamban said Rippel went on a snow-skiing trip with friends and to commemorate the vacation she gave each of her travel companions a painting of the lodge. Kamban now owns one of the lodge scenes plus one other Rippel piece.

“I think Lena did it mostly as gifts for people,” he said. “She didn’t charge for them.”

He said Rippel painted until she was in her 70s and there could be hundreds of them out there. She specialized in landscape scenes but painted at least one featuring three horses. A cousin in Oregon owns that piece.

He’s also curious about a poster he saw that was printed from a painting with the signature Bessie Rippel.

“There are no Bessies in our family line, but her middle name was Elizabeth,” Kamban said. “It looks like her work. I sent it to a cousin of mine, and he agreed, but we can’t verify it. It looks like her signature, and it’s dated the way she dated them. Maybe she went by her middle name for a bit. She was interesting.”

Kamban recently discovered another relative with the artistic gene when he found two paintings by William Rippel, one of Lena Rippel’s nephews.

LIFE IN WINDERMERE

Kamban said his great-great-aunt was quite a trailblazer for her time. She and her partner, Helen Lepole, moved to Windermere in 1946 and built their own ranch house with an above-garage apartment at 508 Second Ave.

The two were together for about 40 years before Lepole died in 1966.

“She was probably a little rough, masculine maybe,” Kamban said. “There’s a picture of her mowing her yard, and she’s dressed like a man. (Community members) really liked her. They liked her and accepted her.”

In fact, everyone loved Rippel, he said.

“She was adored by her family and was a wonderful aunt and great-aunt to many cousins,” he said.

Kamban is learning more about his great-great-aunt as he connects with relatives, and he is eager to hear other stories as additional artwork is discovered.

“I have a passion for genealogy and a passion for artwork, and I want to keep the family history available for those (who) are interested,” Kamban said.