Talk:Hermann Goldschmidt

Date of Death unclear (different dates on different sources)

Hi, I am confused as to the date of his death:

• This article states August 30, 1860 and his obituary here states as well

• This website states September 17 and the Jewish Encylopedia
• Main article currently states April 26? (no ref)

Therefore I have changed to August 30. Thanks --Golan's mom (talk) 12:53, 8 May 2019 (UTC)

Is the infobox portrait actually depicting Goldschmidt?

@Artem.G and Renerpho: Is the infobox portrait actually depicting Goldschmidt? I'm suspicious of the lack of info given in that portrait's file description. The man in the portrait looks rather different than the Goldschmidt head depicted in the middle medal of File:Medal Luther Goldschmidt Hind.jpg. I tried looking for the portrait's source online and found this auction website that suggests that the portrait was made by Goldschmidt himself, but doesn't specify whether it is a depiction of himself or some random male. Nrco0e (talk • contribs) 03:32, 8 August 2026 (UTC)

@Nrco0e: There is a signature in the lower left, indicating that this was painted by someone named Goldschmidt, and a year that could read 1841. The signature looks not unlike that on other works attributed to Hermann Goldschmidt, like . According to , the painting was offered at an auction in July 2014 as a work of Hermann Goldschmidt, under the title Retrato masculino (male portrait). That title, which I believe is in Portuguese or Spanish, is probably not original. It could be due to the seller, or more likely the auction house (Sala de Ventas, Barcelona). According to , it was sold twice, first in May 2014, then again a few months later. I see no reason to doubt that Hermann Goldschmidt is the artist, but there is no indication that this is a self portrait. That's certainly not what was claimed at the auction (although the description online may have been misinterpreted, see below). I agree that it looks nothing like the face depicted on the medal. Unfortunately, whatever likeness of Goldschmidt was used to create that medal doesn't seem to be easily available online.

I don't know much about art, but the man in the painting looks like someone from the mid-to-late 1700s to me (high-collared coat, rolled wig, etc.). I think it's anachronistic for the mid 1800s, and I'm not convinced that Goldschmidt painted it from life. It may be a copy of an older portrait by someone else; or it could be someone who asked to be painted in an old-fashioned dress. Either way, there doesn't seem to be any information about the sitter. For anything else (and probably more), you should ask an art expert.

Here is what that auction page looked like in May 2019, a month before this was uploaded to Commons, with a description that is even shorter than what it is now. In particular, it didn't specify at the time that Hermann Goldschmidt was the artist, which was added to the 2014 auction page at an unknown time between 2019 and now. (Why would they edit the description of a painting that was sold 5+ years earlier?) I could see myself misinterpreting that older version, thinking that Goldschmidt was the subject of the painting. I suspect that רונאלדיניו המלך misinterpreted that description when they uploaded the file to Commons. I am tagging them here, hoping that they know more about it. Renerpho (talk) 07:39, 8 August 2026 (UTC)

@Renerpho: Yeah, that was my hunch too. Honestly we should just take down that portrait. I've searched online and couldn't find any believable photo of Goldschmidt, except the commemoration medal that's already on this article (which was used as the photo for Goldschmidt in this 2015 paper on asteroids). That medal is the best we've got (as far as I know). Nrco0e (talk • contribs) 08:02, 8 August 2026 (UTC)

Thanks for tagging me but I genuinely can`t remember why I did it 7 years ago. Feel free to fix whatever you want. רונאלדיניו המלך (talk) 08:17, 8 August 2026 (UTC)

That's fair. Thanks for responding! Nrco0e (talk • contribs) 08:21, 8 August 2026 (UTC)

Yes, thank you!

@Nrco0e: I agree, it's probably best to remove it from the article. Would you mind fixing the file description on Commons as well? Once the description on Commons has been clarified, I may drop a note on some of the other Wikipedias that use it. Renerpho (talk) 08:55, 8 August 2026 (UTC)

Sure, doing that right now! Nrco0e (talk • contribs) 09:03, 8 August 2026 (UTC)

Thanks! It looks like the file is not (or no longer) in use anywhere. I think there's nothing left to do. Renerpho (talk) 18:47, 8 August 2026 (UTC)