Ferdinand Richardt

Self portrait 1868

Joachim Ferdinand Richardt (10th April 1819 - 29th October 1895) Danish-American artist, in Denmark known for his drawings of manor houses, and in the U.S. for his paintings of Niagara Falls and other landscapes.

Life

Ferdinand Richardt, the son of Johan Joachim Richardt and Johanne Frederikke nee Bohse, was born in Brede, north of Copenhagen in 1819. His father ran the inn/company store at the Brede factory. In 1832 the family relocated to nearby Ørholm to operate the inn at the paper-factory there. In 1839, they moved to Copenhagen.

Ferdinand became briefly a carpenter's apprentice in 1835, but soon decided on a career in fine art, following the lead of his brother Carl. Beginning in 1836 Ferdinand studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Art under the architect and designer Gustav Friederich Hetsch, the historical painter J. L. Lund and the classical sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen. Richardt was awarded the Academy's small and large silver medals in 1839 and 1840, respectively.

In 1847, he received a five year stipend from the crown, on the condition that he deliver one architectural and one landscape painting each year to the royal collection. Between 1855 and 1859 he visited in the United States. He maintained a studio in New York City, while traveling during the summers to Niagara Falls and to various destinations east of the Mississippi River.

After returning to Denmark, Richardt married the widow Sophia Schneider née Linnemann (1831-1888) in 1862. They traveled for part of a year in southern Europe, and from 1863 they lived for a period in England. In February 1864, Queen Victoria invited Richardt to display his art work to the court at Windsor Castle.

In 1872 and 1873, Richardt sold many of his accumulated paintings and lithographs before emigrating to the United States with his family. They lived first in the town of Niagara Falls, N.Y. where the artist again produced canvases depicting the great waterfall and the surrounding area. In 1875, the Richardts moved to San Francisco, and finally in 1876 to Oakland. For the remaining twenty years of his life Richardt was active as a painter of California landscapes with a concentration on the San Francisco Bay Area. He exhibited and sold his works in San Francisco until at least 1887. At the same time he taught drawing privately.

At his death in 1895, Richardt left a daughter, Johanna (1862-1897), and a stepson, Joost Schneider.

Paintings

Niagara Falls painted by Richardt

Richardt created hundreds of oil paintings, mostly of landscapes, castles, manors, and various tourist attractions. He was a recognized, but never quite famous painter in his own lifetime. Today, a number of his paintings are prominently exhibited; some perhaps more for what they depict than for the artistic value.

Selected paintings:

• Thorvaldsen in his studio at Charlottenborg, 1840. (Thorvaldsen's Museum).
• Frederiksborg Palace, 1847. (Hillerød City Hall).
• Kronborg Castle, 1848. (Museums of Elsinore).
• Several pictures of Niagara Falls.
• Mount Vernon, 1858. (Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco).
• Independence Hall, 1858 (The White House).
• San Francisco by Moonlight, 1876 (Society of California Pioneers).

Drawings

Klintholm Manor, from Pictures of Danish Manors

During the 1840s, 50s and 60s, Richardt travelled in Denmark and Sweden, and made numerous drawings of manor houses etc. These were lithographed with the best techniques of the time, and published along with descriptions by well-known historians in the books:

• Views of Danish Manors (Prospecter af danske Herregaarde), 80 portfolios 1844-68 showing a total of 240 manor houses. Republished with new text in 1976.

• Danish Churches, Castles, Manors and Memorials (Danske Kirker, Slotte, Herregaarde og Mindesmærker), 12 portfolios 1867-68 with a total of 56 pictures.

• Scanian Manors (Skånska herregårdar), 24 portfolios 1852-63, with a total of 78 pictures.

• Manors in Södermanland (Herregårdar uti Södermanland), 12 portfolios 1864-69 with a total of 57 pictures, some in color.

These works were very popular at the time. Today, they are of great historical interest.

Richardt drew a vast number of pictures besides the ones published. Few of them were sold during his lifetime. At his death, more than one thousand Danish and American drawings passed to his daughter, and later to his stepson. The drawings were considered to be lost, until the 1990s when the American scholar Melinda Young Stuart located them in the possession of Justine van Hemert Keller, the grandchild of Richardt's stepson. Mrs. Keller has later presented the Scandinavian drawings as a gift to the National Museum of Denmark.

In 2003, more than one hundred of the newly found drawings were reproduced, along with other works by Richardt in the book Views of Danish Manorhouses and America (see below). A copy of this book was presented as a gift from the Danish prime minister's wife to the American First Lady on an official visit.

Literature

• Melinda Young Stuart & Niels Peter Stilling: Danish Manorhouses and America, Landscape Art of Ferdinand Richardt (1819-1895) published by Søllerød Museum, Denmark, 2003. ISBN 8788792455. (Danish title: Danske Herregårde og Amerika). The text by Stilling is in Danish, that by Stuart in English.
• Melinda Young Frye: Joachim Ferdinand Richardt (1819-1895), a Danish Artist in the American Landscape (1855-1859), M.A. thesis, George Washington University, Washington DC, 1993.
• White Mountain Art & Artists
• Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute's exhibition of drawings in 2007.
• New Hampshire Historical Society on art and tourism in the White Mountains 1850-1900

A number of Richardt's pictures can be found on the internet.