19th Century German Portrait, F Peters-Weber, Signed Altona 1901, Große Berliner Kunstausstellung Label, Original Wood Frame
Highlights:
Artist: F. Peters-Weber
Title: Der Alte (The Old Man)
Year: 1901
Origin: Altona (Hamburg), Germany
Technique: Oil on canvas
Style: German Realism, Portrait
Particulars: Signed and dated lower left — "F. Peters-Weber 1901 Altona"; original exhibition label on reverse confirming submission to the Große Berliner Kunstausstellung 1901 — one of the most significant German art exhibitions of the Wilhelmine era; original wood frame; subject: elderly gentleman with walking stick, finely nuanced brown and black tones
Ideal for: Portrait collectors, 19th century German art collectors, provenance-documented works, period interiors, institutional collections
Description:
The exhibition label on the reverse of this painting is what elevates it decisively above comparable period portraits. The Große Berliner Kunstausstellung — the Great Berlin Art Exhibition — was the most important annual showcase for German visual art during the Wilhelmine era, held at the Lehrter Bahnhof exhibition halls in Berlin and attracting works from across the German-speaking world. A painting submitted to and exhibited at the Große Berliner Kunstausstellung in 1901 was a painting that its creator considered among his best work and that a selection jury considered worthy of public presentation. The label on the reverse is not a curiosity — it is a provenance document of genuine art-historical significance.
The painting itself is a restrained and technically accomplished male portrait. The subject — an elderly gentleman with a walking stick, rendered in the finely nuanced brown and black tones that define the best German academic portraiture of the period — is observed with the quiet authority of a painter who understood that the dignity of age required understatement rather than drama. The modelling of the face is particularly fine: the light falls across the features with a precision that reveals both the painter's technical command and his evident sympathy for his subject.
The work is signed and dated lower left — "F. Peters-Weber 1901 Altona" — locating it precisely in time and place. Altona was at this period a city immediately adjacent to Hamburg (it was incorporated into Hamburg only in 1937), home to a significant artistic community and well connected to the broader northern German art world.
Condition:
Good condition for age. The canvas is stable. The paint surface is intact with age-appropriate craquelure. The original wood frame is present. The exhibition label on the reverse is intact and legible. Signature and date lower left clearly legible.
Details:
Artist: F. Peters-Weber
Title: Der Alte (The Old Man)
Year: 1901
Origin: Altona, Germany
Technique: Oil on canvas
Subject: Male portrait — elderly gentleman with walking stick
Style: German Realism, Academic Portrait
Signature: Lower left — F. Peters-Weber 1901 Altona
Provenance: Exhibition label, Große Berliner Kunstausstellung 1901, on reverse
Frame: Original wood frame
Condition: Good — stable, age-appropriate craquelure