PLANCK MAX: (1858-1947) German Theoretical Physicist, noted for his work on quantum theory. Nobel Prize winner for Physics, 1918.

An outstanding vintage signed 9.5 x 13 photograph of Planck in a head and shoulders pose looking directly towards the camera in a determined manner. Photograph by Lotte Jacobi and signed ('Jacobi') by her in bold pencil to the lower photographer's mount. Signed ('Dr. Max Planck') by Planck in bold, dark fountain pen ink with his name alone to the lower photographer's mount. Framed and glazed in the original plain black wooden frame (bearing the Ryman & Co. Ltd., Fine Art Dealers, of High Street, Oxford, framer's original printed label pasted to the verso) to an overall size of 10 x 13.5. Some very light, extremely minor silvering to the edges of the image and some equally minor, extremely light staining to the photographer's mount, not affecting the signature, otherwise VG

The present portrait was captured (and signed) by the German-American photographer Johanna Alexandra 'Lotte' Jacobi (1896-1990). An accomplished portrait photographer, her other subjects included Albert Einstein, Robert Frost, Marc Chagall, J. D. Salinger, W. H. Auden, Martin Buber, Chaim Weizmann and many others. Jacobi travelled from assignment to assignment with her equipment, bringing her studio to the models. Her preference was to make subjects most at ease before taking a photograph, an interesting policy given Planck's apparently determined expression in the present image.

Provenance: The present photograph was signed for Sir Harold Thompson (1908-1983) English Physical Chemist who graduated in 1929 and worked with Planck in Berlin. He returned to Oxford in 1930 (at which time he evidently had the present photograph framed) after receiving a Ph.D. from the Friedrich Wilhelm University of Berlin. The photograph was acquired directly by the vendor from a member of Thompson's family.

Max Planck made many contributions to theoretical physics, but his fame as a physicist rests primarily on his role as an originator of quantum theory, which revolutionised human understanding of atomic and subatomic processes.