Plant Study
William Trost Richards
American Art
In their precise accuracy and close-up format, these two sheets of botanical studies exemplify William Trost Richards’s commitment to the principles of John Ruskin, an English critic who promoted a “truth to nature” approach to representation. Always a prolific draftsman, Richards here delineated the forms of various plants and wild flowers with botanical exactitude. The artist’s concern for realism based on careful observation was in keeping with the Ruskinian notion that God is manifest in the tiniest details of the natural world.
Ruskin’s ideas influenced the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in England, as well as its American counterpart, the Association for the Advancement of Truth in Art, of which Richards was a member.
Ruskin’s ideas influenced the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in England, as well as its American counterpart, the Association for the Advancement of Truth in Art, of which Richards was a member.
MEDIUM
Graphite on beige, moderately thick, slightly textured wove paper
DATES
August 1860
DIMENSIONS
Sheet: 5 5/8 x 8 1/16 in. (14.3 x 20.5 cm) (show scale)
SIGNATURE
Unsigned
INSCRIPTIONS
In artist's hand, in graphite: "Aug 1st 1860." at left center; "Aug 4th 1860" at lower center; and "white flower / green center" at upper right. Erased inscriptions (now illegible) at lower center and lower right.
COLLECTIONS
American Art
ACCESSION NUMBER
72.32.12
CREDIT LINE
Gift of Edith Ballinger Price
MUSEUM LOCATION
This item is not on view
CAPTION
William Trost Richards (American, 1833â1905). Plant Study, August 1860. Graphite on beige, moderately thick, slightly textured wove paper, Sheet: 5 5/8 x 8 1/16 in. (14.3 x 20.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Edith Ballinger Price, 72.32.12 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 72.32.12_PS4.jpg)
IMAGE
overall, 72.32.12_PS4.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2011
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