Christian Richter

Christian Richter (1678–1732) was a Swedish miniature-painter and copyist, active mainly in England.

Life

Family Christian Richter was born in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1678 (although some sources suggest a birth date of ), the son of the silversmith Hans Davidson Richter (died 1695), assessor of the Stockholm Goldsmiths' corporation, and Brita Bengtsdotter Selling. He came from a family of artists and craftsmen, and his brothers included the landscape painter Johann Richter and the medallist Bengt Richter. The latter visited England for a short time, when he executed a set of medals of the members of the Swedish Club; some specimens of these are in the British Museum.

Training Christian Richter's father had intended to enter him on the goldsmiths' lists but died in 1695 before this could be arranged. His mother entered his name that same year, however, and he appears to have worked for his relation Frantz Boll. He was discharged as a journeyman in 1698, after less than three years, and with his brother Bengt went to study medal engraving under Arvid Karlsteen. Around this time he took up portrait-painting, especially in miniature and enamel, and may have learnt to paint from Karlsteen (who occasionally painted miniatures) or perhaps with Elias Brenner, the leading Swedish miniaturist of his time. Wilhelm Nisser noted that Richter's 1701 miniature of the Stockholm merchant Samuel Worster 'betrays a very great capacity'.