TitleMorning on the Delaware
Artist
Thomas Addison Richards
(American, 1820 - 1900)
Date1851
MediumOil on canvas mounted on panel
DimensionsUnframed: 15 7/8 × 23 7/8 in.
SignedSigned twice at lower right: "T.A. Richards"
SubmissionNA diploma presentation, 1851
Credit LineNational Academy of Design, New York, NY
Object number1066-P
Label TextWhen Thomas Addison Richards presented this landscape to the Academy in May 1851 he wrote the corresponding secretary James H. Shegogue:I herewith send to the Academy one of my pictures, in compliance with the requisitions of Sec. 5: Art. 4. of the Constitution.
I should not make so inconsiderable an offering only that I cannot otherwise gratify my desire to avail myself without delay of the honor I have received in my election as an Academician: and that I hope I may be permitted, at a future day, to replace it with a better work.
Richards never exchanged his landscape for another painting, and its rough qualities suggest that it may have been a study for another painting, possibly a painting entitled West Branch of the Deleware which was exhibited at the American Art Union in 1850. The description of the painting published in the Art Union's catalogue are reminiscent of the composition of the Academy's landscape.
