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Johann Heinrich Richartz (15 May 1796 – 22 April 1861) was a German businessman and patron of the arts, best known as the main funder of the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum.
Johann Heinrich Richartz (15 May 1796 – 22 April 1861) was a German businessman and patron of the arts, best known as the main funder of the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum.
Life
Business
Johann Heinrich Richartz took over his father's business in the leather and wild hide trade after completing an apprenticeship inMainz
Mainz () is the capital and largest city of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.
Mainz is on the left bank of the Rhine, opposite to the place that the Main (river), Main joins the Rhine. Downstream of the confluence, the Rhine flows to the north-we ...
, Brussels, and Antwerp
Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504,
. He expanded business relations with North and South America to the point that the Cologne
Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...
branch of J.H. Richartz & Co. was in competition with the main trade offices in Antwerp. Richartz retired in 1851 as a "simple, sober and unpretentious" citizen.
Museum patronage
At a meeting of the City Council of Cologne on May 3, 1854, it became known that Richartz offered "to pay the construction costs of a new municipal museum at the beginning of next year to the city treasury the sum of one hundred thousand thalers (German Silver Coin) against one deposit the annual pension of four out of a hundred." The aim of the foundation was to include the art collection of the collector Ferdinand Franz Wallraf, which he had left to the city in 1824, in the completed municipal museum. Further endowments followed, making the final total of his donations 277,000 thaler, more than half the museum's total construction costs. In recognition,Frederick William IV of Prussia
Frederick William IV (german: Friedrich Wilhelm IV.; 15 October 17952 January 1861), the eldest son and successor of Frederick William III of Prussia, reigned as King of Prussia from 7 June 1840 to his death on 2 January 1861. Also referred to ...
made him a royal Kommerzienrat and a member of the Order of the Red Eagle 3rd class, and in June 1857 the Universal Society for the Encouragement of Arts and Industry awarded him a gold medal. He was also made an honorary member of the Academy of Arts
An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, f ...
.
Richartz died in Cologne after a brief illness shortly before the building's completion. The building was named after Richartz's and Wallraf at its opening in 1861. His will left another 100,000 thaler to fund a lunatic asylum on the condition that the interest for the next ten years was used as an acquisition fund for the new museum. He also left 9,000 thaler to expand the Minoritenkirche next door to the museum, 2,500 thaler to Cologne Cathedral
Cologne Cathedral (german: Kölner Dom, officially ', English: Cathedral Church of Saint Peter) is a Catholic cathedral in Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is the seat of the Archbishop of Cologne and of the administration of the Archdiocese of ...
, and 2,000 thaler to fund a charity place at the Rheinischen Musikschule. Like Wallraf, he was buried in the Melaten-Friedhof
Melaten is the central cemetery of Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia, which was first mentioned in 1243. It was developed to a large park, holding the graves of notable residents.
Name
The name "Melaten" refers to a hospital for the sick and l ...
. On 10 April 1900, a bronze statue of Richartz by Wilhelm Albermann
Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Albermann (28 May 1835, Werden, Essen, Werden an der Ruhr – 9 August 1913, Cologne) was a German sculptor.
Life and work
His father was a cabinet maker. He attended the in Werden until he was sixteen, then served an ...
was unveiled outside the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum's original site (now the Museum for Applied Arts). That site was on a street between Wallraf-Platz and Minoritenstrasse, now known as the Richartzstraße. Richartz's home on the Blaubach is marked by a bronze memorial tablet.
Awards and honors
In 1860, Richartz was appointed Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Arts in Berlin.References
Further reading
* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Richartz, Johann Heinrich Businesspeople from Cologne 1796 births 1861 deaths German patrons of the arts German art collectors 19th-century art collectors Museum founders