30 - Ferdinand Barth, Landscape along the Bach, oil painting & “Melibokus” (mountain near Darmstadt), oil painting bearing a princely monogram (presumably House of Hesse), both framed

Ferdinand Barth, Landscape along the Bach, oil painting & “Melibokus” (mountain near Darmstadt), oil painting bearing a princely monogram (presumably House of Hesse), both framed Ferdinand Barth, 1902 Darmstadt - 1979 Lautertal, German painter (trained at the painting school of Adolf Beyer and Ludwig Habich in Darmstadt, subsequently at the State Academy of Fine Arts/Städelschule in Frankfurt am Main, and from 1924 at the painting school of Carl von Marr in Munich. Returned to Darmstadt in 1932), here: Streamside landscape with lingering snow in early spring, oil on panel, 27 x 34 cm, signed on the right and numbered 8141 on the reverse, signed, inscribed and dated Darmstadt 1961 // ‘Melibokus’, mountain near Zwingenberg/Darmstadt, oil on wood, 16 x 16 cm, in a gilded stucco frame c. 1880 (overall: 28 x 28 cm). On the reverse of this painting, in gold paint, a crown and the Sütterlin letters: S.K.H. (= His Royal Highness) and the monogram P.L. (it is well known that within the Hessian princely family (the House of Hesse) there were several artists who worked as painters, set designers or composers. Whilst many members of the nobility merely collected or patronised art, some princes and landgraves of the House of Hesse actively took up the brush, pen or musical score themselves. It is therefore highly likely that we are dealing here with a member of the House of Hesse who was a painter. More detailed research would be highly recommended in this regard).