Sketchbook, Landscape, Tree and Plant Studies, Some Figures, Germantown, Pennsylvania Area
William Trost Richards
American Art
This sketchbook contains detailed studies of trees and plant life as well as minutiae like this pair of spiders with particulars of a roughly hewn wooden fence, including its grain, knots, and the way in which the rails fit into the notches of the posts. Such precision and attention to specifics demonstrate the Ruskinian point of view that brought Richards into the circle of the American Pre-Raphaelites during the 1860s, when images like this rail fence found their way into his oil paintings.
MEDIUM
Graphite on paper
DATES
ca. 1860
DIMENSIONS
4 1/8 x 6 7/8 in. (10.5 x 17.5 cm)
INSCRIPTIONS
See description
ACCESSION NUMBER
75.15.11
CREDIT LINE
Gift of Edith Ballinger Price
CATALOGUE DESCRIPTION
Sketchbook of 43 pages, containing landscape and nature studies in graphite and one in red crayon.
Inside front cover, loose sketch of a tree trunk or branch, inscribed at upper right, "William T. RIchards / Germantown . Phila"
p1 loose sketch of a forest interior
p1verso studies of wood/fence
p2 studies of wood and two insects
p2verso loose sketch of wood/trees
p3 study of a branch
p3verso - p4 studies of branches, and a study of a tree
p4verso study of branches
p5 study of a tree
p5verso study of branches
p6 study of a tree trunk
page excised
p7 study of a tree trunk
p8 study of tree and/or rocks
p9 study of a tree trunk and some branches
p9verso - p10 study of a tree trunk and rocks, grasses
p11 study of tree trunk
p11verso scribbles
p12 study of forest interior
p12verso upside down, loosely sketched study of forest interior
p13 study of tree trunk amid rocks
p13verso, forest interior; rocks?
p14 study of tree trunk
p14verso study of tree trunk
p15 study of tree trunk
p15verso flower study? other smudged nature studies
p16 small study of branches/leaves
p16verso close up flower study
p17 study of tree
p17verso loosely sketched forest interior
p18 sketch of forest interior
p18verso tree
p19 tree/roots
p19verso loosely sketched nature study, possibly forest interior
p20 loosely sketched forest interior
p20verso study of tree trunk
p21 loosely sketched forest interior
p22 study of tree trunk
p22verso loose sketch of leaves?
p23 loose sketch, possibly flowers or leaves
p23verso loose sketch of tree trunks
p24 loose sketch of forest interior
p24verso upside down, loose sketch of edge of forest
Page excised
p25 blank
p25verso study of tree/bark
p26 partially excised, some sketching of branch and leaves that goes on to p27
p27 sketch of vine and tree trunk (continued from partially excised p26)
p27verso smudged/scribbles
p28 study of tree
p28verso upside down, studies of two heads and a cow, inscribed at upper right, upside down, "WTR"
p29 loose sketch, possibly cloud studies
p29verso study of tree
p30 blank
p30verso studies of branches and leaves
p31 study of branches
p31verso study of trees
p32 study of a tree
p32verso study of branch and leaves
p33 study of branch
p33verso, upside down, loose study of many tree trunks/forest interior
p34 very loose study of many tree trunks/forest interior
p34verso, upside down, forest interior
p35 very loose study of tree trunks
p35verso upside down, forest interior
p36 blank
p36verso, red crayon, forest interior
p37 loose study of base of tree trunk
p37verso loose, almost illegible, nature studies
p38 loose, smudged study of trees
p39 house amid trees, with tombstones (?) in foreground
p39verso, three studies of cows
p40 study of cow standing in water with one tree/branch
p40verso house amid trees, fence in foreground
p41 blank
p41verso loose study of trees and rocks/forest interior
p42 loose study of tree
p42verso seascape, with figure standing on beach
Page excised
p43 study of a man holding a rifle
p43verso study of a man holding a rifle, other lines/markings throughout page
Inside back cover, small landscape within artist rendered "frame", othermarkings of possible nature studies. Some sketches of a book?
MUSEUM LOCATION
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