William Trost Richards Biography | Oil Paintings

William Trost Richards between 1850 and 1855 he studied part-time with the German artist Paul Weber while working as a designer and illustrator of ornamental metalwork. Richards first public showing was in 1858 as part of an exhibition organized by the artist Albert Bierstadt in New Bedford, Massachusetts.

In 1862 William Trost Richards was elected an honorary member of the National Academy of Design. In 1863, he became a member of the Association of the Advanced of Truth in Art, an American Pre-Raphaelite group. In 1866, he traveled to Britain and Ireland for one year and upon his return and for the following six years he spent the summers on the East Coast.

In the 1870s, he produced many acclaimed watercolor views of the White Mountains. William Trost Richards exhibited at the National Academy of Design from 1861 to 1899, and at the Brooklyn Art Association from 1863 to 1885. He was elected a full member of the National Academy in 1871.

William Trost Richards rejected the romanticized and stylized approach of other Hudson River School painters and instead insisted on meticulous factual renderings. His views of the White Mountains are almost photographic in their realism. In later years, Richards painted almost exclusively marine seascape paintings. His daughter Anna Richards Brewster also became a painter.

Art Movement: Hudson River School, Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.
Artists Influencing William Trost Richards: Paul Weber.
He Traveled To England, Ireland.
Artist Biography compiled by Albert L. Mansour at The World's Artist, with text adapted from Wikipedia.