Lot 761

Description

Oil on painter's cardboard, monogrammed and dated "AvW 1906" at the bottom left. Half-length portrait, wearing a tailcoat with a white shirt, bow tie and red waistcoat. The breast star as Grand officier of the French Ordre de la Légion d'Honneur pinned to his left breast. Slightly scratched. In a beautiful plaster frame with matte and polished gilding (minor imperfections), the plaster ornament in the top, right-hand corner slightly damaged (loose). Size of the painting 31.5 x 24 cm, size of the frame 43 x 35 x 7 cm. The painter's cardboard with a handwritten note "Unterstaatssekretär Dr. Richter" on the back, a typewritten label with this information plus Anton von Werner's dates of birth and death. Published in the exhibition catalogue "Anton von Werner - Geschichte in Bildern", page 457, no. 1906-03. Also illustrated in this frame in the Anton von Werner archives (https://antonvonwerner.de/html/artwork/detail/91FE3A4E-DAB3-435F-B155-6B3C6EBC5932.html). Dr. Max Richter (1856 - 1921) was Under-Secretary of State in the Reich Ministry of the Interior. In 1879, he received his doctorate in law in Königsberg, then worked at the Reichsamt des Innern from 1891 and was sent as Reichskommissar to the World Expositions in Chicago and Paris in 1892 and 1900. For many years, Dr. Richter advised the ministries on matters relating to potash. In 1912, he was awarded the Order of the Crown 1st Class for implementing the Reich law on the sale of potash salt, which was adopted in 1910, forcing potash mines to become members of the state-sanctioned Potash Syndicate. In 1917, he retired from public service and was appointed chairman of the supervisory board of the Potash Syndicate.

Condition: II Questions about the lot?