The view depicted on the back of this watch is possibly the harbour at Messina. Richter Jean-Louis (1766-1841) He learned his art under David-Etienne-Roux and Philippe-Samuel-Théodore Roux, becoming a most renowned enamel painter. His speciality was the painting of landscapes and particularly lake-side scenes and marine-scapes, often representing ships in a harbour or battles with fighting Men-of-War, but, on occasion, also portraits and hunting scenes. He did not often sign his work, but it is clearly recognised as being in his hand from the style and quality of the painting. He applied his art principally to watch cases and snuff boxes and these were largely destined for the Chinese, Turkish, British and Italian markets. In 1828 he was in partnership with Aimé-Julien Troll (1781-1852) and one can find work signed Richter et Troll.Richter, like other great enamel painters of the time, often found inspiration for his work from paintings or engravings by the artists then in fashion, Van der Myn (1684-1741), Giovanni Battista Cipriani (1727-1785), John Francis Rigaud (1742-1820), John Hoffner (1748-1810) and Francesco Bartolozzi (1727-1815), or even from particularly famous scenes such as the 'Rape of Helen' from the engraving by Guido Reni (1575-1642), now in the Cabinet des Estampes, Paris.