Gustav Richter (artist)

], he painted decorative frescos depicting Norse gods above doorways in the Vaterländischen Saal of the Neues Museum in Berlin.

The technical qualities of his "Raising of Jairus's Daughter" (1856, National Gallery, Berlin), painted for King Frederick William IV, aroused great enthusiasm on its exhibition, but both this and a large oil painting "Building of the Pyramids" (1859–72), Maximilianeum, Munich), ordered by the King of Bavaria, suffer from theatrical pathos.

Recognizing the limitations of his talent, Richter confined himself thereafter to single figures and portraiture, in which he was more successful.

Fine examples are: "Banker's Wife" (1876), "Countess Karolyi" (1878), and, best of all, the well-known ideal portrait of Queen Louise (1879, Cologne Museum).

Mention should be made also of the portraits of Emperor William I (1876, 1877), Empress Augusta (1878), and General Count von Blumenthal (1883, unfinished, National Gallery, Berlin) and the wildly popular "Neapolitan Fisher Boy" (c. 1873).