Emma Gaggiotti Richards

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Self-Portrait 1853

Emma Gaggiotti Richards (* 1825 in Rome , † June 21, 1912 in Velletri ) was an Italian painter who worked in the United Kingdom . She made five paintings for Queen Victoria and Prince Albert .

family

Emma Gaggiotti Richards was the daughter of Camillo Gaggiotti and his wife Angelina, née Serafini. Her father was Minister of War (Intendente Generale delle Truppe Pontificie) in Rome. Her mother sat the painter Adolf Senff as a model for portraits in 1819 and in the 1820s. Her brother, also Camillo Gaggiotti, was a language teacher for Italian and taught Karl Hegel , among others .

Live and act

Emma Gaggiotti Richards grew up in Ancona . She completed painting studies with Nicola Consorti in Ancona and from 1848 with Tommaso Minardi in Rome. In addition to painting, she devoted herself to singing and poetry.

In 1849 she married the English journalist Alfred Bate Richards (1820–1876), then editor of the weekly newspaper The British Army Despatch . With him she moved to London . The couple had a son, Raoul Richards, who later worked as a collector of historical weapons in addition to painting.

In 1850, Prince Albert gave his wife, Queen Victoria, three of her paintings, Faith , Hope and Charity . On this occasion, the Queen saw the artist's self-portrait, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1851, and commissioned a second, which she gave to Prince Albert for Christmas in 1853.

Recommended by the Prussian ambassador in London, Albrecht von Bernstorff , to Alexander von Humboldt , she went to Berlin in 1854 . There she created several portraits, including those of Humboldt, Friedrich Wilhelm IV. And Crown Prince Wilhelm , who had already acquired her self-portrait at the Royal Academy exhibition in 1851. Then she traveled to Paris , where she worked for Napoleon III. executed a painting of the four seasons. In 1855 she returned to Ancona. She lived in Florence from 1865 to 1904 and moved to Velletri in 1904.

Richards was a well-known portrait painter in the 19th century. Her paintings have been acquired by galleries such as the Palazzo Pitti . They are exhibited at Fontainebleau Castle , Osborne House ( Isle of Wight ), the Dresden Kupferstichkabinett , numerous Prussian castles and American galleries and art collections such as the Corcoran Gallery in Washington .

literature

  • Emma Gaggiotti Richards . In: Jane Fortune, Linda Falcone: Invisible Women. Forgotten Artists of Florence . Collana The Florentine Press, Florence 2009, ISBN 978-88-902434-5-5 , p. 215 ( Google Books ).
  • Andreas Stolzenburg: Gaggiotti-Richards, Emma. In: Andreas Beyer, Bénédicte Savoy, Wolf Tegethoff , Eberhard König (Hrsg.): General artist lexicon. The visual artists of all times and peoples. Volume 47: Gado - Gallardus. Munich 2005, ISBN 3-598-22787-6 , p. 203.

Web links

Commons : Emma Gaggiotti Richards  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ L'Indicatore , Issue No. 31, September 27, 1848, p. 124
  2. ^ Friedrich Noack : The Germanness in Rome since the end of the Middle Ages . Deutsche Verlagsanstalt, Stuttgart 1927, Volume 2, p. 196
  3. ^ Specialized newspapers : Lady in the shade. February 17, 2018, accessed August 28, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Gaggiotti Richards, Emma
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian painter
DATE OF BIRTH 1825
PLACE OF BIRTH Rome
DATE OF DEATH June 21, 1912
Place of death Velletri