Era V · 1964–2014
Richard deeply admired and appreciated the Danish aesthetic. He furnished his New York City apartment in this style while collecting broader Scandinavian tchotchkes. On a buying trip in 1961 he laid eyes upon a "stunning and perfect" Finnish woman at Copenhagen's Tivoli Gardens.
Richard of Manhattan and Helena of Helsinki fell in love and married in 1963 in New York after corresponding for a couple of years. He began teaching commercial art at the vocational New York City public high school, Art & Design, the same year he wed. He also taught at the City University of New York (C.U.N.Y.). For nearly 30 years, Richard mentored students and opened doors for talented inner-city youth.
But the romantic painter never stopped practicing hyper-realism. His bedroom was his studio where he continued to paint on canvas with an easel. He challenged himself to reproduce the beauty around him, which included the family he had started. His special talent involved capturing the finest details — the creases in his hand's knuckle, the sparkly twinkle in his child's eye.
Later in life he struggled to produce prolifically as his health waned. He passed away in 2014, not very far from where he was born in Manhattan.
Personal Photographs — The Teaching & Family Years
Still Lifes & Objects
Hyper-realism at its finest. Using magnifying glasses and single-hair brushes, Richard achieved a level of detail rarely seen outside photography. He worked on this masterpiece over several months, including during summer vacation in Helsinki through the bright nights of midnight sun.
An extreme close-up that emphasises the reflective surface, texture, and golden lustre of the subject — a signature approach in Richard's fine art work.
A portrait of Richard's son Jonathan — the kind of intimate family study that occupied Richard's private work throughout his teaching career.
A photorealist painting of a Meerschaum pipe carved in the likeness of a lady — chosen by the Veterans Administration for their 1993 calendar for the month of March.
A photorealist study of a single tree — nature rendered with the same meticulous attention to light and texture that Richard applied to every subject.
Using very fine brushes, Richard duplicated the fine weave in the silk petals in extraordinary detail. This painting was selected by the Veterans Administration for their 1993 calendar — appearing in September.
A painting of a New York City billboard — the commercial world Richard knew so well, now rendered as fine art subject matter.
A profile portrait of Richard's son Jonathan — the "sparkly twinkle in his child's eye" that Richard often spoke of capturing in paint.
A study of a cloisonné decorative plate — its intricate enamel compartments and metalwork rendered with the same single-hair brush precision that defined Richard's late career.
An intimate still life that transforms an everyday object into a meditation on pattern, structure, and colour.
A trompe-l'œil masterwork: a hyperrealist rendering of U.S. currency so precise that each engraved line in the portrait of Alexander Hamilton is faithfully reproduced in oil paint.
A photorealist study of a green glass bottle — light refracting through coloured glass was a subject Richard returned to throughout his fine art career.
A photorealist painting of the Hilton International Bangkok hotel — a subject that speaks to Richard's ongoing interest in architecture and the interplay of light on building surfaces.
Portraits
A portrait of Richard's lifelong friend Herbert Gentry — the American abstract expressionist painter whom Richard first met on the Paris bread line in the late 1940s.
A tender portrait of Richard's daughter Anna as an infant — one of the most personal works in his fine art catalogue.
A late-career self portrait — Richard continuing the tradition he began in Paris of examining his own face with the same unflinching realism he applied to every subject.
A portrait of Richard's wife Helena — the "stunning and perfect" Finnish woman he met at Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen in 1961 and married in 1963.
A portrait of Richard's mother Minnie Tuchschneider — the woman whose illness in the late 1940s called Richard home from Paris and whose welfare shaped the entire trajectory of his career.
A formal portrait of Richard's son Jonathan as a young man — the skill that made Richard one of Madison Avenue's most sought-after portrait illustrators turned inward toward family.
A playful portrait of Richard's close Army friend Antoine Mizrahi. Richard created a detailed pencil drawing, then added an acetate overlay with a pen-and-ink clown outline — blending the real and the fantastic.
A late self portrait with beret — the painter as Parisian, still channeling the spirit of the young man who lived on the Rive Gauche four decades earlier.
Sketches & Works on Paper
A photorealist interior scene set in a workshop — tools and workbenches rendered with the exacting detail Richard brought to all his still-life subjects.
A companion piece to "In the Workshop (1 of 2)" — a second view of the same workshop environment.
A masterful graphite drawing demonstrating that Richard's photorealist command of form translated equally to pencil as to oil.
A life drawing continuing the academic tradition Richard began in Paris — the human figure as the ultimate test of an artist's observation and technique.
