Sketchbook, Newport Area, Landscape and Coastal Subjects

In 1874 Richards and his family spent the first of many summers at Newport, an old colonial town on the Rhode Island coast that was rapidly becoming a fashionable summer resort. Excited by the varied landscape and coastal topography of the region, the artist wrote to one patron: “I have made some new walks and discovered new beauties and believe that I could from Newport Scenery make more charming pictures than I have ever dreamed of before.” Many summers afterward would be spent “prospecting” for new subjects, filling sketchbooks like this one with studies for watercolors and oil paintings like Old Orchard at Newport, 1875, on display in the adjacent American Identities galleries.