Louis Nicholas Adolphe Rinck

French, 1802–1895

Born in Metz, France, Rinck's father was a Hessian officer, suggesting that German was the first language. His full name is Louis Nicolas Adolphe Rinck, though he has often been misidentified as "Adolph D. Rinck." He studied at the Berlin Academy in the mid-1820s and enrolled in the École des beaux-arts in Paris in 1835.

Rinck moved to New Orleans in 1840 and was soon earning about $2,000 per year, describing himself as an "ami de M. Vaudechamp" in the New Orleans Bee. He remained in New Orleans for thirty years. Margarette, his wife, owned a shop located in the Pontalba Buildings during the early 1850s. After 1869, Rinck spent many years seeking support from the State Legislature for a model farm he intended to establish on property he purchased in Algiers. He published a detailed plan to bring "Happiness to Millions," but was disappointed with the response. Rinck left New Orleans for New York City in about 1871.

Rinck painted portraits of Judah Benjamin Charles Alexandre and Charlotte Euphemie Mathilde Grevemberg, Judah Touro, Jean Baptiste Dejan, as well as of unheralded individuals—most famously Free Woman of Color, New Orleans (University Art Museum, University of Louisiana at Lafayette), probably representing an unidentified woman in Rinck's employ. Rinck's example had an evident impact on artists such as George David Coulon (1822–1904) and Julien Hudson (1811–1844).