Philadelphia artist William Trost Richards Began his career as a designer, before studying with Hudson River School artist Paul Weber. After seeing an exhibition of British art in 1858, he became influenced by the works of the Pre-Raphaelite artists, aligning himself with the movement’s American practitioners and painting with the group’s combination of precise realism and atmospheric quality. He worked from nature, creating near-photorealistic landscapes of the Catskill, Adirondack, and White mountain ranges, and paying particular attention to rock formations. A trip to England inspired Richards to focus on marine subjects, at which he excelled, painting dramatic watercolors of crashing waves under placid skies along America’s East Coast.
Philadelphia artist William Trost Richards Began his career as a designer, before studying with Hudson River School artist Paul Weber. After seeing an exhibition of British art in 1858, he became influenced by the works of the Pre-Raphaelite artists, aligning himself with the movement’s American practitioners and painting with the group’s combination of precise realism and atmospheric quality. He worked from nature, creating near-photorealistic landscapes of the Catskill, Adirondack, and White mountain ranges, and paying particular attention to rock formations. A trip to England inspired Richards to focus on marine subjects, at which he excelled, painting dramatic watercolors of crashing waves under placid skies along America’s East Coast.