HENRY LEOPOLD RICHTER
 October 22, 1870 - March 11, 1960

 

Henry Leopold Richter was born in Plumenau, a province of Moravia in the Austrian Empire, October 22, 1870. In his early years he was given a violin and lessons, and enjoyed music throughout his life. Henry did well in school and was awarded a scholarship (in art and mathematics) but was not able to take advantage of it as the family moved away. During the family moves around the area, Henry had several apprentice jobs and becoming fluent in six languages. However, English was not one of these languages.

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Around 1887 the family imigrated to the United States and settled in Chicago. The senior Mr. Richter passed away a couple of years later and Henry had to support the family. He went to night school to learn English and he became a US citizen in 1894. He took a series of labor type jobs, and in the process learned art to make paintings from photographs while working for a commercial art company.

 

Henry wanted to develop his art skills and around 1900 attended an Art Academy which became the Chicago Art Institute. He studied privately with E. A. Burbank, a well known artist who painted portraits of Native Americans. His painting went well, and in 1904 he opened a studio and exhibited his work widely. Due to the favorable reviews in the press, Henry was offered a teaching position in the Colorado State Normal School at Gunnison in 1911, which later became Western Colorado University. The Normal School was short of funds and staff, so Henry taught art, German, and the violin. He served as first violin in the WSC orchestra. Henry painted several large murals for his classroom, which are now restored and displayed in the Leslie Savage Library.

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Henry took a leave of absence from WSC in 1913 for more study in Europe with Professor Knirr at his private art school in Munich. He cut his time short, returning to the United States in 1914, and the day he arrived in New York, war was declared. He returned to his Gunnison teaching position, and quickly had several exhibitions of the new works he had painted in Europe.

 

In 1915 he married Catherine Moore, who was from Grand Junction, Colorado. After they were married, they lived in the old La Veta Hotel in Gunnison. After a year of very little for Catherine to do, and Henry with little time to paint, she asked to take over his teaching responsibility, giving her husband the time to paint.  He took extensive sketching trips around Gunnison area, and was known particularly for his paintings of snow scenes.

     

In 1919 the Richters took teaching positions at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. Henry worked in the college of Fine Arts and Catherine taught in the College of Education. In 1920 the lure of the West called them and they moved to Long Beach, CA.  Catherine had a teaching position at Polytechnic High School and Henry took a number of private pupils, painted, and taught art in night school at Poly High.

The family which now included Henry Jr. went to Europe in 1930 for a sketching trip which resulted in many fine paintings. It was cut short to avoid the growing Spanish revolution. The family was soon joined by daughter Elsa, and moved in 1939 to the country type-setting in Rolling Hills, in the southwest portion of the Los Angeles Basin. There Henry Sr. had a number of private pupils, painted, and exhibited extensively throughout Southern California, including Laguna Beach. He was well known for his desert scene paintings.  Henry L. Richter, Sr., passed away in 1960, just short of 90 years of age.

     

Henry’s prolific career produced paintings of European scenes, Colorado mountain landscapes, California landscapes and desert scenes, and portraits in both oil and watercolor.