Questroyal 2009
A Family Affair WilliamTrost Richards was an artist of great esteemby the 1870 s––the decade he painted On the Shore ( 1872 ) and Landscape ( 1874 ). His seascapes were so treasured by critics and collectors that one writer from Lippincott’s Magazine claimed his wave study in the collection of Professor Fairman Rogers to be “an achievement in art which is a real glory to America,” adding: “It reaches an accuracy and perfection which painters of no other country have dreamed of.” 3 Nevertheless, Richards and his family traveled to England just seven years later in search of new scenes and a foreign market for his works. 4 There, he found a bevy of inspiration in the jagged, noble cliffs and dramatic play between earth and water found off the coasts of Cornwall. The artist was so taken by the offered views that he made sketches of them from which he based paintings and watercolors well into his later years, including The Coast of Cornwall ( 1883 ). Interestingly, some of Richards’s sketches from the period and after may be found in a family circular begun during their English sojourn. Along with his wife, Anna, Richards encour- aged their children’s writing and drawing by helping them create Our Own Monthly , a homemade magazine full of stories and illustrations. Although the drawings were from the hand of Richards or Anna, the parents’ instruc- tion was successful; their daughter, Anna Brewster Richards, became a noted artist in her own right, exhibiting sketches of England alongside her father’s Cornish, Irish, andWelsh scenes in 1896 . 5 — jlw Richards’s works may be seen in the collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New-York Historical Society, BrooklynMuseum,Museumof Fine Arts, Boston, National Gallery of Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art, and Cleveland Museum of Art. 1 “Art,” The Aldine, the Art Journal of America 7 , no. 17 (May 1, 1875 ): 339 . 2 E. L. Magoon, “Art in Albany,” The Independent Devoted to the Consideration of Politics, Social and Economic Tendencies, History, Literature, and the Arts 15 , no. 739 (January 29, 1863 ): 1 . 3 E. S., “Private Art-Collections of Philadelphia. IX .–Professor Fairman Rogers’s Gallery,” Lippincott’s Magazine of Popular Literature and Science 10 (November 1872 ): 588 . 4 For a discussion on Richards’s decision to go to England, see Linda S. Ferber, “William Trost Richards ( 1833 – 1905 ): American Landscape and Marine Painter” (Ph.D. diss., Columbia University, 1980 ), pp. 299 – 305 . 5 “Pictures byW. T. Richards.,” The NewYork Times , February 23, 1896. 6 WilliamTrost Richards, “The Lost Pleiad,” Unpublished Manuscript, ca. 1850 . William Trost Richards papers, 1848 – 1920 . Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. 7 James Henry Moser, “Art Topics,” TheWashington Post, May 10, 1903 . If the local tints and pervading tones are startlingly strong, just go and study the originals, as the artist has done, and you will most wonder and admire that he dared be true in depicting our Great Father’s work. reverend e. l. magoon, author and art collector, 1863 2
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