William Trost Richards

On his first trip to England in 1879, the American painter William

Trost Richards braved harsh winter weather conditions to sketch

the remote and sparsely populated cliffs and coves of Cornwall.

Like his well-known coastal views of Rhode Island, New Jersey,

and Maine, this small watercolor demonstrates the artist’s lifelong

fascination with geology and natural history, interests nurtured by

the writings of the English art critic John Ruskin. Consequently,

Richards’s works, even on this intimate scale, display remarkable attention

to color and topographical accuracy. While abroad, Richards

often enclosed small vignettes like this in letters to patrons in

America, using these homemade postcards both as friendship mementos

and as advertisements of his skill.