457 Commercial Street, by David W. Dunlap (2012).
“Porch on the Bay” (1995), by Raymond Elman, portrait of Mischa Richter père.
Three generations of gifted Richters — Mischa, his son Daniel, and Daniel’s sons Sacha and Mischa — have been integral parts of the art colony. This was the home of Mischa (pictured) for the last 23 years of his life. From 1942 to 2000, he was a cartoonist for The New Yorker. His work was gently sly. (Two dogs in business attire see a “No Dogs Allowed” sign. One to the other, “We’ve got a class-action suit if ever I saw one.”) Richter was an accomplished and confident abstract painter. His wife, Helen Sinclair Annand Richter, painted, too. They bought this Shingle-style, gambrel-roofed, 1917-vintage building from George Bryant in 1978, and owned it for the next 35 years. No. 457 occupies the same tax lot as No. 459, where Daniel and Sacha Richter have a home and studio.
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