Jump to content

William Trost Richards

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Cydebot (talk | contribs) at 11:03, 10 October 2016 (Robot - Moving category People from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Category:People from Philadelphia per CFD at Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2016 September 6.). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

William Trost Richards
Born(1833-06-03)June 3, 1833
DiedNovember 8, 1905(1905-11-08) (aged 72)
NationalityAmerican
Known forPainting
MovementHudson River School
American Pre-Raphaelite

William Trost Richards (June 3, 1833 – November 8, 1905) was an American landscape artist.[1] He was associated with both the Hudson River School and the American Pre-Raphaelite movement.[2]

Biography

William Trost Richards was born on 3 June 1833 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.[1] In 1846 and 1847 he attended the local Central High School. Between 1850 and 1855 he studied part-time with the German artist Paul Weber while working as designer and illustrator of ornamental metalwork. Richards first public showing was part of an exhibition in New Bedford, Massachusetts, organized by artist Albert Bierstadt in 1858.[3]

In 1862 he was elected honorary member of the National Academy of Design and Academician in 1871. In 1863, he became a member of the Association of the Advanced of Truth in Art, an American Pre-Raphaelite group. In 1866, he departed for Europe for one year. Upon his return and for the following six years he spent the summers on the East Coast.

In the 1870s, he produced many acclaimed watercolor views of the White Mountains, several of which are now in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Richards exhibited at the National Academy of Design from 1861 to 1899,[4] and at the Brooklyn Art Association from 1863 to 1885. He was elected a full member of the National Academy in 1871.

He died on April 17, 1905 in Newport, Rhode Island.[1]

Legacy

Richards rejected the romanticized and stylized approach of other Hudson River painters and instead insisted on meticulous factual renderings. His views of the White Mountains are almost photographic in their realism. In later years, Richards painted almost exclusively marine watercolors.

His works are featured today in many important American museums, including the National Gallery, the Saint Louis Art Museum, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Wadsworth Atheneum, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Yale University Art Gallery, the High Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Fogg Art Museum, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the Berkshire Museum, the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum and Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.

His daughter Anna Richards Brewster also became a painter.

References

  1. ^ a b c "William Trost Richards". New York Times. November 9, 1905. Retrieved 2015-05-05. William T. Richards, a marine artist, who gained considerable prominence by his exhibition of paintings at the Centennial Exposition in 1876, died suddenly at his home in this city to-day from heart disease. He was born in Philadelphia in 1833.
  2. ^ "William Trost Richards". United States Department of State. Retrieved 2015-05-05. William Trost Richards was an important American landscape artist associated with both the Hudson River School and the American Pre-Raphaelite movement.
  3. ^ "William Trost Richards - The complete works".
  4. ^ "William Trost Richards Biography".

Further reading

  • Ferber, Linda S., In search of a national landscape : William Trost Richards and the artists' Adirondacks, 1850-1870, Blue Mountain Lake, N.Y., Adirondack Museum, 2002.
  • Ferber, Linda S., Never at fault, the drawings of William Trost Richards, Yonkers, N.Y., Hudson River Museum, 1986.