William Trost Richards

1833-1905

William Trost Richards (1833–1905) was a Philadelphia-born landscape and marine painter loosely tied to the Hudson River School, though he pushed against its romantic drama in favor of sharp, near-photographic observation. Trained partly under the German painter Paul Weber while earning his living as a designer of ornamental metalwork, he developed an exacting eye that aligned him with the American Pre-Raphaelite circle gathered around the Association for the Advancement of Truth in Art. He exhibited widely at the National Academy of Design, becoming a full Academician in 1871, and traveled to Europe in the 1860s. His watercolors of the White Mountains from the 1870s are prized for their precision, and from 1881, settled at Jamestown, Rhode Island, he turned almost entirely to marine subjects, painting the rhythm of surf and coastline with the same patient fidelity. His work hangs today in major American collections, including the Honolulu Museum of Art, the Metropolitan Museum, and the National Gallery of Art.