 Ferdinand Reichardt is primarily known as Ferdinand (Joachim) Richardt
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This biography from the Archives of AskART:
|  Ferdinand Richardt (1819-1895): A Brief Biography by Melinda Young Stuart 2003.
Ferdinand
Richard, whose full name was Joachim Ferdinand Richardt, was born in
Brede, Denmark, just north of Copenhagen, and studied at the Royal Art
Academy in Copenhagen with Bertel Thorvaldsen, Gustav Hetsch, and
J.L.Lund. Early on he received support from the Danish Crown to
travel, sketch, and paint landscapes and castles, and a number of his
paintings soon entered the royal collections.
His lithographs
(sketched "from Nature") of Danish and Swedish manor houses began
appearing in 1844, and were widely acquired by Scandinavia's landed
gentry until the series ended in 1870. I n 1855, Richardt embarked on a
sojourn to America, reputedly at the invitation of William Vanderbilt
said to have paid him $14,000 for a painting of Niagara Falls.
This 4-year visit allowed Richardt to produce over 100 landscape
canvases of Niagara Falls, the Mississippi River, Mammoth Cave,
Philadelphia, and other scenic tourist destinations. When shown
in two New York exhibitions, the works were favorably reviewed.
By
1860 Richardt was back in Copenhagen displaying his American
"prospects" to the Danish public and continuing his lithographic
productions. During that decade he married, exhibited annually at
Denmark's Charlottenborg salon, and traveled to Italy and England where
Queen Victoria invited him to show his work at Windsor Castle.
During these years Richardt also produced a large number of Copenhagen
and Stockholm city views, as well as pure landscapes and architecture
studies.
In 1873, the artist immigrated with his family to the
United States, stopping for a year and a half at Niagara Falls, before
arriving in San Francisco in 1875. During his final 20 years on
the West Coast, Richardt specialized in marine and city views, and
depicted the majestic redwood groves north and south of San Francisco,
even then being rapidly cut down. Several fine Richardt canvases
of Yosemite valley are also known, although most of his travels were
closer to home. In 1876 he moved across the water to the city of
Oakland, but maintained an active exhibition and teaching schedule on
both sides of the bay through the 1880s. He died in Oakland in
1895 and is buried in the city's Mountain View Cemetery, designed by
Frederik Law Olmsted.
In this country, Richardt exhibited at New
York's Stuyvesant Institute (1857) and the National Academy of Design
(1859), at the Buffalo Fine Arts Academy (1874, 1875, 1876), and at the
Mechanic's Institute and the San Francisco Art Association during the
1870s and 1880s. His works are held today by The White House,
Metropolitan Museum of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Fine Arts Museums
of San Francisco, Oakland Museum of California, U.S. Department of
State, and many other American museums and private collections.
In Denmark, his works are found in the Statens Museum for Kunst,
Nationalmuseet, Thorvaldsens Museum, Frederiksborg Castle, and in many
other collections, both public and private.
Reference: Melinda Young Stuart and Niels Peter Stilling. Danske Herregarde og Amerika [Danish Manor Houses and America]: The Landscape Art of Ferdinand Richardt (1819-1895). Denmark: Sollerod Museum, 2003
Note, December 2003, from Melinda Young Stuart, who has done extensive research on this artist:
Over
the years, and continuing, there is confusion over the artist's name.
His true and complete name is: "Joachim Ferdinand Richardt." I have
seen copies of his death certificate, his Danish baptism and family
census records etc., as well as hundreds of his painted and sketched
picture signatures--enough to be confident of my statement.
Unfortunately for the artist, these confusions have further muddied
water which is already shallow with lack of correct public information!
The
"Joachim" was his true first name, but he NEVER used it when signing
pictures. He DID, sometimes, sign "J.F. Richardt," especially on
drawings. Most often he signed "Ferd. Richardt," or "F. Richardt" or
"Ferdinand Richardt."
The "REICHARDT" listing is more problematic!
I
believe he never signed pictures this way, but others differ. Several
museums and the publications previous documenting their works claim he
spelled it this way--principally The White House and the New-York
Historical Society.
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This biography from the Archives of AskART:
|  Review:
A First Book on the Artist
Ferdinand Richardt (1819-1895)
"DANSKE HERREGÅRDE OG AMERIKA"
[DANISH MANOR HOUSES AND AMERICA]:
THE LANDSCAPE ART OF FERDINAND RICHARDT (1819-1895)
by Melinda Young Stuart and Niels Peter Stilling
Published in Denmark, 2003 (in English and Danish)
The
first book-length treatment of the Danish-American artist, Ferdinand
Richardt, was published in Denmark in June 2003 as a joint venture of
the Danish National Museum, Sllerd Museum, and Jutland's Manor House
Museum. The hard cover, decorated with Richardt paintings, holds 250
pages of text, maps, and pictures--36 in full color.
The book
documents Richardt's accomplishments as a painter of realistic
landscapes in what America calls the 'Hudson River' tradition and what
Denmark terms its 'Golden Age.' Trained in Europe, this artist moved
from an Old World society of landed gentry to a new American one of
natural wonders and a developing west coast. Today Richardt's paintings
hang in the White House, the U.S. Department of State (Washington,
D.C.), the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in many other museums, and in
public and private collections, and yet his dramatic impressions of
Niagara Falls, the California coast, and the Mississippi River have
never before been comprehensively studied and brought together for the
public. Even as the artist's paintings have commanded rising prices at
auction, no dependable source of reference has--until now--been
available to experts.
Melinda Young Stuart's decade of research
is presented in a 58-page English text which recounts and illustrates
the artist's entire life and work, emphasizing his American period.
Niels Peter Stilling's Danish text, meanwhile, concentrates on
Richardt's extensive mid-19th century work among Denmark's ancient
manor houses. Each text can stand alone. The book contains substantial
notes and references.
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This biography from the Archives of AskART:
|  Born in Brede, Denmark on April 10, 1819. Richardt studied at the Royal Academy in Copenhagen and was an established artist in his native land with sales of his paintings to the King of Denmark, the
Russian Czar, and British royalty. Upon arriving in NYC in the early 1850s, he painted views of Virginia, New York, and Pennsylvania and had equal success in selling his work to wealthy American patrons. He was commissioned by Wm Vanderbilt to paint Niagara Falls for $14,000; the painting brought him such fame that large paintings of the falls became his forte. After moving to San Francisco
in 1875, he made regular trips into the mountains of Santa Cruz and northern California. His last studio-home was located in Oakland where he died on Oct. 29, 1895. Primarily a landscapist, he also painted still lifes of fruit, vegetables, and flowers.
Exh: Mechanics' Inst. (SF), 1875, 1882; SFAA, 1876; Calif. State Fair, 1880. In: NY Public Library; NY State Historical Ass'n; Thorwaldsen Museum (Copenhagen); Oakland Museum; Society of Calif. Pioneers; De Young Museum. | Source:
Edan Hughes, "Artists in California, 1786-1940"
G&W; Ben; Oakland Museum; SF Examiner, 10-30-1895 (obit). | | Nearly 20,000 biographies can be found in Artists in California 1786-1940 by Edan Hughes and is available for sale ($150). For a full book description and order information please click here. |
Biography from Charleston Renaissance Gallery:
| Richardt was a highly prolific artist who worked both in Denmark and in the United States, where he traveled in the 1850s and later settled permanently in 1873.
Born in Brede, outside Copenhagen, he trained at the Royal Danish Academy of Art, and was known in his native country for architectural and landscape views of important castles and ancient manor houses. The artist's first four-year American sojourn from 1855 to 1859 resulted in thirty-two large paintings of Niagara Falls, for which he is best known in America.
In January of 1859, following extensive sketching trips by canal boat, steamer, and rail throughout the eastern half of North America, Richardt mounted his Gallery of Paintings of American Scenery at New York's National Academy of Design. Among other views, the exhibition included paintings of Grace Church on lower Broadway in New York; the Hudson River; Cape May, New Jersey; the White Mountains of New Hampshire; the upper reaches of the Mississippi River; Virginia's Natural Bridge; and, significantly, six paintings depicting Mammoth Cave in Kentucky, noted in the catalogue as “the first collection of views from this wonderful Cave, ever exhibited.”
Returning to Copenhagen, Richardt exhibited his American collection in 1860, later traveling in Italy and England. Finally, in 1873 he emigrated to the United States, stopping at Niagara Falls and settling in California. There he was drawn to coastal scenery, to redwood forests and mountains, including Yosemite Valley, and to city views in San Francisco and Oakland. During the last twenty years of his life he exhibited and sold works to the public, and taught drawing and painting.
Richardt died in 1895 at his home in Oakland. His pictures are found today in many museums in this country and Scandinavia. MYS |
Biography from Kramer Gallery, Inc.:
| Known as the painter of American natural wonders such as Niagara Falls, Ferdinand Richardt began his career with studies at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen. He traveled in America in the late 1850s, painting landscape and genre scenes notable for their architectural detail, multiple figures, and atmospheric treatment of the landscape. Richardt painted Niagara Falls from numerous viewpoints, showing a “Niagara Gallery” of paintings in New York in 1856. He moved between America and Europe several times, and published a series of lithographs of Danish manor houses.
Richardt emigrated to America and moved west in the 1870s, settling in Oakland, California and painting Yosemite Falls, the Monterey peninsula, and urban scenes.
Citations
Mary T. Swanson, THE DIVIDED HEART: SCANDINAVIAN-AMERICAN IMMIGRANT ARTISTS (exhibition catalogue, 1982)
Stuart, Melinda Young: DANSKE HERREGARDE OG AMERIKA (VIEWS OF DANISH MANOR HOUSES AND AMERICA) (2003)
Rena Neumann Coen, PAINTING AND SCULPTURE IN MINNESOTA, 1820-1914 (1976)
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| ** If you discover credit omissions or have additional information to add, please let us know at registrar@AskART.com. |
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Ferdinand Reichardt is also mentioned in these AskART essays:
Hudson River School Painters
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