Sketchbook: English Coastal Scenery
William Trost Richards
American Art
Richards was a prolific artist who, as a leading member of the American Pre-Raphaelites, embraced the Ruskinian principle of truth to nature. Sketching outdoors played a significant role in his quest for accuracy of representation. Throughout his long career and extensive travels, he seems to have always carried a sketchbook with him, filling the pages with drawings of the places he encountered. The Brooklyn Museum owns more than twenty-five of Richards’s sketchbooks, including the ones on view here. Serving as pictorial diaries of his journeys, they also demonstrate the variety of his working methods, ranging from quickly rendered outlines to carefully modulated tonal compositions to finished color studies.
MEDIUM
Graphite and some watercolor on beige, medium thick, smooth wove paper
DATES
1878
DIMENSIONS
Closed: 5 1/4 x 7 3/8 in. (13.3 x 18.7 cm)
Open: 5 1/4 x 10 5/8 in. (13.3 x 27 cm) (show scale)
COLLECTIONS
American Art
ACCESSION NUMBER
1993.225.7
CREDIT LINE
Gift of Edith Ballinger Price
CATALOGUE DESCRIPTION
The sketchbook has 73 pages with several drawings at one end of book in watercolors; the remainder are in graphite.
1 Loose sketch of coastal scene
2 Hills, castle in the background. Inscribed lower left: "[L?S?]elant church / Sept 16' 1878"
3 Coast scene, inscribed lower center "St Ives Bay / Sept 16' 1878"
4 Loose sketch of coastal scene. Inscribed lower center: “Sept 16”
4verso Loose sketch of hills along coast – water in background
5 Loose sketch of grassy hills
6 Rocky coast line. Inscribed lower center: “Bay of St. Ives / Sept 16’. 1878”
6verso Loose rocky coast
7 Rocky coast, inscribed lower center: “Bay of St. Ives Sept 16th 1878”
7verso Coast and lighthouse (?). Lower center: “Sands of Ur[s?i?]bian St. Ives Bay / Sept 16’ 1878”
8 blank
8verso Hill, man with cart pulled by donkeys. Inscribed lower center: “Upton [T?J?owars?] Sept 16’ 1878 / St Ives Bay”
9 Rocky coast. Inscribed lower center: “St. Ive’s Bay / Sept 16’ 1878”
9verso Coast with boats. Inscribed lower center: “Hayle Sept 16 1878”
10 Loose sketch of hills
11 Castle amid trees. Inscribed lower center “Phillack near Halyle / Sept 16 1878”
11verso Town scene, church and cemetery. Inscribed lower right: “St Ives Sept 18 1878”
12 Town on rocky coast. Inscribed lower left “St Ives. / Sept 18 1878”
13 Town on coast. Inscribed lower left: “St Ive’s / Sept 19’ 1878”
14 Town on coast with boats. Inscribed lower center: “St Ives. Sept 18’ 1878”
15 Town scene. Inscribed lower center: “St Ives / Sept 18’ 78”
16 excised
17 Town scene with boats. Inscribed lower center: “St Ives Sept 18’ 1878”
18 Loose sketch of a building
19 Rocks and waves. Inscribed lower center “St Ives Sept 18’ 1878”
19 verso Loose sketch of water
20 Rocks and waves. Inscribed lower center “St Ives Sept 18’ 1878”
20verso Loose sketch of rocks
21 Rocky hills
22 Rocks atop hill
22verso Loose landscape sketch
23 Small scribble, illegible subject
23v Loose rocks
24 Loose sketch of a rocky hill
25 Street scene with buildings and cart. Inscribed lower center: “Bankers [M?H?]ill” / St Ives / Sept 20”
25verso Loose sketch of 3 male figures
25 Street scene with figures. Inscribed lower center “Sept 20’ 1878”
27 Sail boats moored with townscape in background and figures in foreground. Inscribed Lower center: “St Ives / Sept 20’ 1878”
28 Loose sketch of coast and town. Inscribed lower center: “Sept 20’ 1878”
29 House and mill, Inscribed lower center “Sept 20’ 1878”
30 Rocks. Inscribed lower center “Sept 20’ 1878”
31 Rocky hill on coast. Inscribed lower Right “Sept 20 1878”
32 Rocky coast. Inscribed lower center: “Sept 20’ 1878” and lower right: “Near St Ives”
32verso Loose sketch of rocky coast
33 Rocky coast. Inscribed lower right “Sept 20’ 1878”
34 Coast. Inscribed lower right: “Sept 20th [1]878 / St Ives.”
34verso Light sketch of cathedral tower
35 Townscape along coast. Inscribed lower left: “St Ives / Sept 24’ 1878”
36 Street and harbor scene. Inscribed lower left: “St. Ives Sept 23 ‘78”
37 Street scene. Inscribed Lower center “St Ives Sept 24 1878”
38 Harbor scene. Inscribed lower right “The [?]uay. St Ives / Sept 24 1878”
39 Baskets, figure with basket. Inscribed lower center: “St Ives Sept 24 ‘1878”
39verso loose sketch of a male figure
40 Loose sketch of fishermen working in harbor and a man with two horses. Inscribed lower center “Sept 24’ 1878”
40verso Loose sketch of rocks
41 Loose sketch of houses. Inscribed lower right: “Sept 24 1878”
42 Loose landscape sketch. Inscribed lower left: “Sept 25’ 1878”
42verso Loose landscape sketch
43 Loose landscape sketch
44 Rocky coast. Inscribed lower left: “Sept 27”
45 Rocky peak. Inscribed lower left “Sept 29th”
45veso Loose sketch of rock
46 Loose sketch of rocks. Inscribed lower left “Sept 29”
46verso Loose sketch of rocks
47 Loose sketch of rocks. Inscribed lower right “Sept 28th”
47verso Loose sketch of rocks
48 Rocks and water. Inscribed lower left: “Sept 29th”
48verso Loose light sketch of rocks
49 Rocks on water/coast. Inscribed lower left: “Sept 29:”
49verso Loose sketch of rocks
50 Rocky cliffs/coast
50verso Loose sketch of rocky cliff/coast with far off town
51 Line outline of distant hills/cliffs
52 Rocky coast
53 Rocky coast. Inscribed lower center: “[Penovept?] Oct 1st 1878”
54 Loose sketch of a cathedral
55 Rocks on coast line
56 Rocks on coast line
57 Rocks on coast line
58 Rocks on coast line
59 Rocks on coast line
60 Rocky hills
61 Rocky coast. Inscribed lower right: “Oct 3rd 78 / [Raynanu?].”
61verso Loose sketch of a rocky hill
62 Rocks on coast line. Inscribed lower left: “Asparagus Isle-“
62verso Loose sketch of rocky hills
63 Loose sketch of rocky coast
64 Rocky hills. Inscribed lower center: “Oct 5th 78 / [Raymanu?] Valley-”
65 Rocky hills. Inscribed lower left: “Oct 5’ 78”
65verso Loose sketch of a rocky coast
66 Rocky coast
66 verso Loose line drawing of rocky coast
67 Rocky coast
68 Rocky coast
69 Rocky coast. Inscribed lower right: “Oct 6’ 78”
69 verso Loose line drawing of rocks
70 blank
70 verso Watercolor of grassy and rocky coast
71 Rocky coast
71 verso Watercolor of rocky coast
72 blank
72 verso Watercolor of coastline. Inscribed lower center: “Upton Sand [Jowarrs?] / St Ives Bay Sept 17’ 1878”
73 blank
73 verso Loose watercolor of coast
MUSEUM LOCATION
This item is not on view
CAPTION
William Trost Richards (American, 1833–1905). Sketchbook: English Coastal Scenery, 1878. Graphite and some watercolor on beige, medium thick, smooth wove paper, Closed: 5 1/4 x 7 3/8 in. (13.3 x 18.7 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Edith Ballinger Price, 1993.225.7 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 1993.225.7_PS2.jpg)
IMAGE
overall, 1993.225.7_PS2.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2007
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