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Property from the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection WILLIAM TROST RICHARDS (1833-1905) Gull Rock...

Currency:USD Category:Everything Else / Other Start Price:NA Estimated At:30,000.00 - 50,000.00 USD
Property from the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection WILLIAM TROST RICHARDS (1833-1905) Gull Rock...
Property from the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection
WILLIAM TROST RICHARDS
(1833-1905)
Gull Rock, Newport, Rhode Island, 1876
signed and dated "Wm. T. Richards, 1876" (lower left)
inscribed "Gull Rock, Newport,
R.I., William T. Richards, 1876" (on reverse)
watercolor and gouache on paper
9 1/8 x 14 3/8 in. (23 x 35.5 cm) <p>Estimate: $30,000-50,000 <p> Provenance
George Whitney, Philadelphia, 1876-1885 E.R. Warren, 1885 New York art market Ira Spanierman, Inc., New York, 1981 Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, Lugano, Switzerland, 1981 <p> Exhibited
New York, American Art Association, The Works of Mr. Wm. T. Richards in the Collection of American and Foreign Paintings to be sold on account of the Estate of the Late Mr. George Whitney of Philadelphia, 1885, no. 59 (illustrated) Houston, The Museum of Fine Arts; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Art Center; Omaha, Joslyn Museum of Art, Nineteenth-Century American Landscape Painting: Selections from the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, October 29, 1982-June 19, 1983, no. 39 (illustrated) <p> Literature
Barbara Novak, The Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection: Nineteenth-Century American Painting, London, 1986, p. 160, no. 44 (illustrated, p. 161) <p> One of the best-known watercolor painters of America, William Trost Richards, was one of a number of American landscapists ardently devoted to the artistic philosophy expounded by famed British critic John Ruskin. Seeking their own form of innovation, one consistent with Ruskin's principles, a number of the artists cultivated the medium of watercolor as a professional discipline. Richards became a leading figure in the American Watercolor Society, founded in 1866, and remains celebrated today for his accomplishments in the medium. <p>When Richards first began to spend his summers in Newport, Rhode Island, in 1875, he swore that he would find ample subjects there to serve him for the remainder of his career. He reveled in the scenic coastline and the varied meteorological conditions characteristic of Newport's position straddling the peninsula between the Narragansett Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. Many of his initial impressions are preserved in small, postage-stamp watercolor sketches of subjects that he found intriguing and sent to his patron and advocate, George Whitney, for consideration. In the case of Gull Rock, Whitney also acted as Richards' agent, exhibiting the final version of the painting in his private gallery and soliciting visitors to purchase the work. He wrote to Richards, "Several people (who had no $500. by them) have raved over your Gull Rock ... I think it may find a resting place by and bye, in the fall, if not sooner if you do not send for it."1 Their relationship appears to have served Richards well, as he soon built a stately home for himself and his family near Newport. <p>Richards was nothing if not thorough. As scholar Linda Ferber has written of the artist: "First impressions were not sufficient. A breaker had to be studied 20 times in an hour, and impressions had to be firmly grounded in fact. Such respect for fact prevented any modification of his style toward the more painterly."2 Gull Rock is a striking example of Richards' assiduous attention to detail. From the foamy sheen of water across the surface of the rocks at the lower right to the interplay of the advancing breakers with the riptide, Richards has woven a dynamic tapestry of natural forces at play. <p>We are grateful to Mark Mitchell for cataloguing this lot. <p> notes 1 Whitney to Richards, June 1877, cited in Linda Ferber, TOKENS OF A FRIENDSHIP: MINIATURE WATERCOLORS BY WILLIAM T. RICHARDS FROM THE RICHARD AND GLORIA MANNEY COLLECTION, exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1983, p. 37 2 Linda Ferber, WILLIAM TROST RICHARDS: AMERICAN LANDSCAPE & MARINE PAINTER, 1833-1905, exh. cat., The Brooklyn Museum, New York,1973, p. 34).
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