Mountain Landscape (from Sketchbook X)
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
1992.2.2qq
Tags
Art Historical Context
William Trost Richards, a prominent 19th-century American landscape influenced by the meticulous naturalism of the Pre-Rhaelites and John Ruskin, created *Mountain Landscape (from Sketchbook X)* 1885. This graphite drawing on off-white wove paper just 5 x 7 1/2 inches, capturing the beauty of mountains in a compact, portable format ideal for an artist's sketchbook. Rendered with fine pencil lines and subtle shading, it exemplifies Richards' dedication to precise observation of nature, a hallmark of his oeuvre during a career spanning decades of plein-air studies along the East Coast and beyond...
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...