After the completion of his doctorate requirements, Rishel spent a year traveling in Europe on a University travel grant. He returned to the United States in 1964 and worked as an assistant in the Conservation Laboratory at the Art Institute of Chicago. He moved to Ohio for a year, where he taught Art History at Wooster College, then returned to the Art Institute of Chicago in 1967 as a Lecturer on Special Exhibitions. He was promoted to Associate Curator of Earlier Painting and Sculpture until 1971 when he transferred to the Philadelphia Museum of Art as the Associate Curator of European Painting Before 1900 and the curator of the John G. Johnson Collection. In 1972 he was promoted to the position of Senior Curator of European Paintings, and the Curator of the Rodin Museum. In 1998, Rishel had the prestigious honor of also being named the Gisela and Dennis Alter Senior Curator of European Painting and Sculpture before 1900.
At the Philadelphia Museum, Rishel has organized exhibitions of the following:
- Cézanne in Philadelphia Collections (1983)
- Claude Monet: Philadelphia (1987)
- The Henry P. McIlhenny Collection (1988)
- Master Pieces of Impressionism and Post-Impressionism: The Annenberg Collection (1988)
- The major retrospective exhibition, Cézanne (1996)
- Cézanne to Matisse: Great French Paintings from The Barnes Foundation (1995)
- Delacroix and America (1998)
- Goya: Another Look, catalogue and co-creator of the exhibition with Musee des Beauz-Arts, Lille (1999)
- The Splendor of 18th Century Rome (2000)
- Van Gogh: Face to Face (2000)
- Brazil: Body & Soul (2002)
- Degas and the Dance (2003)
- Manet & the Sea (2003-2004)
Rishel was awarded the American Academy of Arts & Sciences Fellowship and the Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2002.
He resides in Philadelphia, Pa. with wife Anne d'Harnoncourt.
Contribution: Curator of European Painting and Sculpture at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Expert on work of Paul Cezanne
Hometown: Clifton Springs, N.Y.
College Activities: Dean's List, Student Advisor, member of Schola Cantorum, Honor's Project on the Iconographic Interpretation of the Sistine Ceiling
Major: Cultural History
Other Education: University of Chicago, Chicago, Ill. (Ph.D., 1962)