Public collection via the Cleveland Museum of Art
AT-00011396Cormorant Cliff, Jamestown, Rhode Island
About the Artwork
As a young artist, Richards was influenced by John Ruskin’s Modern Painters. Richards’s interest in Ruskin was particularly reflected in the younger artist’s meticulous geological studies made directly from nature. Richards strove for the fidelity to nature that he saw in the Pre-Raphaelite paintings exhibited in a show of British art at the Pennsylvania Academy in 1858. He is best known for his seascapes. Like the Impressionists, he was interested in capturing natural light and reflections on water and wet beaches, but his handling was tighter and his palette more tonal.
Inscriptions
signed, lower left, in black ink: Wm [m is underlined] T. Richards 1877
Exhibition history
Year in Review: 1969. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 27-February 22, 1970). American Drawings from the Permanent Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (April 19-July 12, 1998). Nature Sublime: Landscapes from the 19th Century. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 15-November 14, 2004).
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Quick Overview
- Artist
- William Trost Richards (American, 1833–1905)
- Date
- 1877
- Medium
- watercolor and gouache
- Dimensions
- Sheet: 58.4 x 94.1 cm (23 x 37 1/16 in.)
- Type
- Drawing
- Classification
- Drawing
- Department
- Drawings
- Credit line
- Gift of the Reverend and Mrs. Danila Pascu
- Accession no.
- 1969.125
More by William Trost Richards in museum collections
Open-access museum record · AT-00011396
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