Sea and Sky in a Deluge (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
1992.2.1ee
Tags
Art Historical Context
William Trost Richards, a leading American landscape artist of the 19th century, captured the raw power of nature in *Sea and Sky in auge* (from Sketchbook VII dated 1886. This intimate graphite drawing on off-white wove paper just 5 x 7 1/2 inches, suggesting it was a quick field sketch from one of Richards' sketchbooks—tools he used to study and refine his observations of the natural world. Rendered with precise, fluid pencil lines, it evokes a tumultuous seascape where churning waves meet a stormy sky, embodying the dramatic forces of wind and water. Richards, influenced by the Hudson Rive...
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...