"A Gentleman Reading", Albert Joseph Franke (Buchwitz near Breslau 1860–1924 Munich)
Oil on panel. Signed “A. J. Franke” lower left. Depiction of a gentleman reading, dressed in Rococo costume and wearing a wig, in a wood-panelled interior. He holds a book in his right hand and a long white clay pipe in his left. To the left are a window and curtain; to the right, a table with a book and papers and a red-upholstered chair; two framed pictures hang on the walls. Surface with scratches and signs of rubbing, particularly around the signature, along the lower third of the left edge, in the curtain at left and on the chair back at right. Scattered pinpoint light-coloured marks across the surface. Frame with rubbing and losses to the gold-coloured finish, particularly along the edges and at the corners; a larger area of loss at the lower left corner exposing the wood. Image dimensions 24.5 × 18 cm, frame dimensions 27.8 × 21.3 cm. Franke was a Munich-based genre and Orientalist painter whose oeuvre includes Rococo scenes set in 18th-century interiors and North African market scenes.
Condition: II
Oil on panel. Signed “A. J. Franke” lower left. Depiction of a gentleman reading, dressed in Rococo costume and wearing a wig, in a wood-panelled interior. He holds a book in his right hand and a long white clay pipe in his left. To the left are a window and curtain; to the right, a table with a book and papers and a red-upholstered chair; two framed pictures hang on the walls. Surface with scratches and signs of rubbing, particularly around the signature, along the lower third of the left edge, in the curtain at left and on the chair back at right. Scattered pinpoint light-coloured marks across the surface. Frame with rubbing and losses to the gold-coloured finish, particularly along the edges and at the corners; a larger area of loss at the lower left corner exposing the wood. Image dimensions 24.5 × 18 cm, frame dimensions 27.8 × 21.3 cm. Franke was a Munich-based genre and Orientalist painter whose oeuvre includes Rococo scenes set in 18th-century interiors and North African market scenes.
Condition: II
