Born in Philadelphia, William Trost Richards did not get off to the audacious start one might associate with a successful artist of the 19th century. It is said he enjoyed drawing from a very early age, but all childhood fancies were put on hold when Richards' father died in 1847. At the tender age of fourteen Richards dropped out of high school and took a job designing metal fixtures to support his family. This act of responsibility beyond his years was a sign of the ambition and determination Richards would use to his benefit in the coming years.
At 17 years old, while still working in metal fixtures, Richards began to study privately. along with eventual contemporary William Stanley Haseltine, under the famed German landscape artist Paul Weber. It could not have been a better time as he spent the next few years sketching the Hudson River Valley with artists such as Frederic Edwin Church, John Kensett and Jasper Cropsey; an all-star team of artisans by today's standards. Richards was particularly influenced by Church and Kensett. Along with fellow student William Haseltine, Richards followed in the footsteps of most great artisans and made the trip to study in Europe. Upon returning he eventually settled in Newport, Rhode Island. He became famous for his paintings of land and sea, particularly for his seascapes of the eastern coastline. As a gallery in southern New Jersey we take great pride in the fact that some of Richards' finest seascapes were painted of the New Jersey coastlines of Atlantic City and Cape May.
Richards style can be summed up in one word: meticulous. As a member of the Society of Truth in Art, Richards painted with an almost painful amount of attention to detail. His seascapes are a prime example, leaving the viewer with no doubt as to the expanse of the shoreline, the dampness of the sand, and the affects of the weather on wave conditions and debris left by storms and tides.
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