Portrait of a Man

Joseph Ritter (1800-1861)
1832, Oil on canvas

Signed in the top left-hand corner and dated 1832, this work portrays a country gentleman of good birth who wished to be portrayed in front of a background that we imagine to be part of his property. He is shown leaning against the elegant balustrade of his home; the artist has emphasised the colour of his jacket and beret so that they stand out against the black background and the hazy blue of the bright sky. The artist is Austrian but little is known about him except that he was active in the years when the Biedermeier taste was becoming popular, a period that produced portraits which, although elegant, were both predictable and lacking in imagination, compared to those of even the recent past. This painting, however, proves that he was not only talented at making accurate depictions: the expression on the face of this corpulent landowner, who wears a ring on his little finger, perhaps with a coat of arms, shows the character’s personality as determined and haughty.