Field with Laborers (from Sketchbook VII)
Medium
Graphite on off-white wove paper
Dimensions
5 x 7 1/2 in. (12.7 x 19.1 cm)
Classification
Drawing
Culture
American
Department
The American Wing
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Purchase, Gifts in memory of Stephen D. Rubin, 1992
Accession Number
1992.2.1e
Tags
Art Historical Context
William Trost Richards, a prominent American landscape artist associated with the Hudson River School, created *Field with Laborers ( Sketchbook VII)* in1886. This intimate graphite drawing on off-white wove paper just 5 x 7 1/2 inches, capturing a rural scene of workers tending a field amid trees. Rendered with precise pencil strokes, it exemplifies Richards' meticulous attention to nature's details, a hallmark of his realist style that celebrated America's pastoral landscapes during the Gilded Age. As part of a personal sketchbook series, this work reveals the artist's preparatory process, ...
About the Artist
William Trost Richards · 1833–1905
William Trost Richards (1833–1905) was a prominent American landscape and marine painter born in Philadelphia, where he attended Central High School before beginning his artistic training. Between 1850 and 1855, he studied part-time under the German-born Hudson River School artist Paul Weber while working as a designer and illustrator of ornamental metalwork. He exhibited his first works at the Pe...