The Metropolitan Museum of Art
New York, NY
212-535-7710
http://www.metmuseum.org/
William Trost Richards
in The Metropolitan Museum of Art
February 13-May 13, 2001
The first American
drawings acquired by The Metropolitan Museum of Art were by William Trost Richards (1833-1905),
an artist associated with both the Hudson
River School and the American Pre-Raphaelite movement. A number
of these early acquisitions - donated to the Metropolitan in 1880 by the
Reverend Elias Lyman Magoon - will be displayed at the Museum, along with
recent significant acquisitions and works from a loan collection of Richards's
miniatures. William Trost Richards in The Metropolitan Museum of Art
will open on February 13, 2001.
Born
in Philadelphia in 1833, William
Trost Richards studied in Florence, Rome, and Paris before settling
in Germantown, Pennsylvania. He was recognized initially for his landscapes
- especially of the White Mountains of northern New Hampshire and southwestern
Maine - but turned his attention to the sea beginning in about 1867. A leading
artist of the American Watercolor Society, Richards was esteemed for helping
lift the medium into higher prominence. (left: Moonlight on Mount
Lafayette, New Hampshire, 1873, Watercolor, gouache, and graphite on
green wove paper, 8 1/2 x 14 3/16 inches, The Metropolitan Museum of Art,
Gift of The Reverend E. L. Magoon, D.D., 1880 (80.1.2), Photograph by Geoffrey
Clements)
The exhibition at the Metropolitan will feature works representing
the entire range of subjects for which Richards was known. Noteworthy among
his early works will be Palms, a delicate drawing from 1855 which
was acquired recently by the Museum. Landscapes from the E. L. Magoon gift
of 1880 will include the watercolors Moonlight on Mount Lafayette, New
Hampshire 
(1873)
and Lake Squam from Red Hill (1874). Among Richards's luminous and
highly realistic paintings of the sea will be the watercolor A Rocky
Coast (1877). Complementing the works in watercolor, graphite, and ink
from the Museum's collection will be selections from a private collection
of Richards's charming postcard-size watercolors of landscape and marine
subjects in Pennsylvania, New England, and the British Isles. (left:
Lake Squam from Red Hill, 1874, Watercolor, gouache, and graphite on
green wove paper, 8 7/8 x 13 5/8 inches, The Metropolitan Museum of Art,
Gift of The Reverend E. L. Magoon, D.D., 1880 (80.1.6), Photograph by Geoffrey
Clernents)
The
Web site for the Metropolitan will feature the exhibition.
The exhibition is organized by Kevin J. Avery, Associate
Curator, Department of American Paintings and Sculpture. (left: Indian
Summer, 1875, Oil on canvas, 24 1/8 x 20 inches, The Metropolitan Museum
of Art, Bequest of Collis P. Huntington, 1900 (25.110.6))
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Born
in Philadelphia in 1833, William
Trost Richards studied in Florence, Rome, and Paris before settling
in Germantown, Pennsylvania. He was recognized initially for his landscapes
- especially of the White Mountains of northern New Hampshire and southwestern
Maine - but turned his attention to the sea beginning in about 1867. A leading
artist of the American Watercolor Society, Richards was esteemed for helping
lift the medium into higher prominence. (left: Moonlight on Mount
Lafayette, New Hampshire, 1873, Watercolor, gouache, and graphite on
green wove paper, 8 1/2 x 14 3/16 inches, The Metropolitan Museum of Art,
Gift of The Reverend E. L. Magoon, D.D., 1880 (80.1.2), Photograph by Geoffrey
Clements)
