$4,740
William Trost Richards (American, 1833-1905) Summer Clouds Signed "Wm. T. Richards." l.l., purportedly titled, probably in a later hand, on the reverse. Watercolor on paper, sight size 33 3/4 x 24 in. (85.7 x 61.0 cm), framed. Condition: Toning, tear u.r., not examined out of frame. Provenance: Private collection, Cambridge, Massachusetts. N.B. William Trost Richards began working in watercolors by 1860 and frequently worked in that medium throughout the 1860s and 70s, at which time watercolor as a medium was experiencing a revival in American art. During this period, Richards also began to shift his subject matter away from highly detailed landscapes (often done in oil) that reflected the influence of the Pre-Raphaelites and John Ruskin, toward marine and coastal views. ³Richards¹s intensive work in watercolor coincided with a new stylistic direction for the artist and an emerging fascination with shoreline subjects that he would indulge regularly for the rest of his career.²1 He traveled throughout the northeast, studying the crashing surf of the coastal waters. In 1874, Richards bought a home in Newport and frequently painted the surrounding waters of Narragansett Bay. ³Watercolor proved an ideal medium for expressing his preoccupation with surf and the moist, hazy atmosphere of the summer shore.²2 Although he did not totally abandon the highly detailed and technically precise renderings of his environment seen in his earlier landscape compositions, the medium of wa
Auctioneer:
Skinner
Date:
2009-09-11
