Sketchbook
Brooklyn Museum photograph
Object Label
The small sketchbook is an album of carefully finished miniature landscapes reflecting the skills that Richards had honed as a book illustrator working on a small scale. This subject is drawn from sketches the artist had made during the summer of 1867 while in the Alps with his family and friends. Unterseen, in central Switzerland, is located between two large lakes in lowlands affording spectacular views of the snowy summits rising above. The image, framed with a border and executed in a tiny format, nevertheless captures the grand scale and distance of remote peaks, as well as the gnarled fruit trees that occupy the foreground.
Caption
William Trost Richards (American, 1833–1905). Sketchbook, 1867. Bound sketchbook with drawings in graphite on beige, moderately thick, smooth textured wove paper, Closed: 3 5/8 x 5 1/4 in. (9.2 x 13.3 cm) Open: 3 5/8 x 10 1/8 in. (9.2 x 25.7 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Edith Ballinger Price, 86.53.5. (Photo: Brooklyn Museum)
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Artist
Title
Sketchbook
Date
1867
Medium
Bound sketchbook with drawings in graphite on beige, moderately thick, smooth textured wove paper
Classification
Dimensions
Closed: 3 5/8 x 5 1/4 in. (9.2 x 13.3 cm) Open: 3 5/8 x 10 1/8 in. (9.2 x 25.7 cm)
Signatures
Signed in graphite, page 1: "William T. Richards / Shoemaker's Lane / Germantown-- / Pa."
Inscriptions
Inscriptions in graphite: inside front cover, "531 N. 7 Ward" page 19: in lower right margin "Orchards at Unterseen" [Switzerland] page 23: at lower right of image "a. 15"
Markings
Square paper label affixed to upper left of inside front cover, printed: "GOUPIL'S / 772 / BROADWAY, N.Y."
Credit Line
Gift of Edith Ballinger Price
Accession Number
86.53.5
Have information?
Have information about an artwork? Contact us at