Aaron Anderson
Specialist, Head of Sale
PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION, BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA
Lot 70
Joachim Ferdinand Richardt(1819-1895)View of the Niagara River Looking Toward Lake Ontario 16 x 24 1/2 in. (40.6 x 62.2 cm.)
7 November 2023, 14:00 EST
New YorkSold for US$35,840 inc. premium
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Mary Manfredi
Cataloguer & Sale Coordinator
Joachim Ferdinand Richardt (1819-1895)
View of the Niagara River Looking Toward Lake Ontario
signed and dated 'F. Richardt 1857.' (lower center)
oil on canvas
16 x 24 1/2 in. (40.6 x 62.2 cm.)
Painted in 1857.
signed and dated 'F. Richardt 1857.' (lower center)
oil on canvas
16 x 24 1/2 in. (40.6 x 62.2 cm.)
Painted in 1857.
Footnotes
Provenance
Sale, Henry H. Leeds & Co., New York, February 20, 1857, lot 31, sold by the artist.
Sale, Northfield, Massachusetts, 1967.
Michael Haller, Gallery 44, LLC, New Hartford, Connecticut, acquired at the above sale.
Acquired by the present owner from the above, 1996.
Literature
M.Y. Stuart, N.P. Stilling, Danske herregårde og Amerika: rejser i guldalderens Danmark og pionertidens USA med maleren Ferdinand Richardt (Views of Danish Manor Houses and America by Ferdinand Richard, a Danish-American Artist), exhibition catalogue, 2003, p. 84.
We are grateful to Melinda Young Stuart, scholar on the work of Joachim Ferdinand Richardt for her kind assistance in cataloguing this lot and for preparing the following catalogue note.
The present work by Joachim Ferdinand Richardt is an exceptional example of his widely revered body of work depicting Niagara Falls and the surrounding landscape. In 1855, Richardt left his native Denmark for New York City, where he maintained a studio until 1859. During almost 2 years at Niagara Falls, Richardt created over 100 oil-on-canvas views celebrating the panorama of the Niagara in a highly-productive lifetime of painting. He took the railroad to California's Bay Area in the 1870s, producing a considerable body of art of the American west before his death in 1895.
In this painting, Richardt captures a view of the Niagara River looking towards Lake Ontario. The new Lewiston-Queenston Bridge (built 1851) that connected America and Canada is seen in the distance, and on the right a new steam locomotive. The new technologies of railroads and suspension bridges enthralled Americans of the period. Richardt's art—as well as displaying the glories of Niagara Falls—specialized in depicting these new technologies. Today, four of Richardt's paintings hang in the permanent collections of the White House and America's State Department; many are also held by museums in both America and Denmark.