TitleCoastline, Cornwall
Artist
William Trost Richards
(American, 1833 - 1905)
Dateafter 1877
MediumWatercolor and gouache on off-white wove paper
DimensionsSheet size: 7 × 9 5/8 in.
Mat size: 14 × 18 in.
Credit LineNational Academy of Design, New York, NY, Bequest of Mrs. William T. Brewster, daughter of the artist, 1952
Object number1980.55
Label TextThis is one of a large group of watercolors that Richards made during the course of his travels from 1878-1880 along the southern coast of England. He would work some of these watercolors into oils. Here he employs body color in combination with transparent washes, and incorporates bold tints of green, blue and purple. Richards was inspired by what he called “the dark and tragic character of Cornwall” with its massive battered coast. He was transfixed by the region’s rugged topography and distinctive rock formations, and found it to be “the realization of all that Conanicut hints at.” In Coastline, Cornwall he appears to have worked from the top to bottom of his sheet of paper. The upper section is completed in great detail while the lower is partially bare.
