William Trost Richards, American, 1833-1905, A High Tide in Atlantic City, Opaque watercolor with touches of translucent watercolor 8 7/16 x 13 15/16 in. (21.4 x 35.4 cm) on moderately thick, moderately textured wove paper. |
"This turn to the medium coincided with a new focus on coastal subjects—watercolor was particularly well suited both to sketching outdoors and to capturing the constantly shifting climatic conditions at the water’s edge."
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Thanks, Brooklyn Museum
6 comments:
I‘m always amazed at the accuracy or believability of the colors. Especially such a scene which can disappear within minutes.
When I try to paint at sunset It’ll be dark before I call it quits and give up in defeat.
Did artists like Richards premix the colors? Or did they have multiple sessions for a watercolor like this? Paintings like these look so effortless and almost magical to me, thanks for sharing these!
Evilclive, I would say neither of the above. I would wager he painted this in his studio from a well-stocked memory, because the way it's taped off, it looks like an exhibition watercolor. But there are examples of his watercolor seascapes done on location, proof being raindrops: Post about that: https://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/2008/09/called-away.html
Amazing image of Atlantic City - so beautiful. And today: not so attractive. Although, James, you could easily paint a scene there and it WOULD be entrancing. Somehow.
I was amazed at his "coupon" pictures.
These were watercolor/gouache pictures which were sized about 3"x5"
which were given to patrons as "coupons" for a full sized painting.
I saw these at an exhibit at the Penna. Academy of Fine Arts in 2012.
A book accompanied the exhibition entitled
" A Mine of Beauty: Landscapes of William Trost Richards"
https://www.amazon.com/Mine-Beauty-Landscapes-William-Richards/dp/1555953824
I bet it would be amazing to see this in real life...
P.s. you can really zoom right in to some of his works on the Google Arts & Culture app/site , like this one https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/a-rocky-coast-william-trost-richards/iwHKT8jrDXTWjg , it blows me away how varied the colour in the rocks are.
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