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Preview image of work. oil on canvas,  In the Woods 3841
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1955.10

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In the Woods

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Artist

William Trost Richards (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 11/14/1833 - 11/1905, Newport, Rhode Island)

Title

In the Woods

Creation Date

1860

Century

mid-19th century

Dimensions

16 in. x 20 1/8 in. (40.64 cm x 51.12 cm)

Object Type

painting

Creation Place

North America, United States

Medium and Support

oil on canvas

Credit Line

Gift of Miss Mary T. Mason and Miss Jane Mason

Copyright

Public Domain

Accession Number

1955.10

One of William Trost Richards’s early landscapes, In the Woods helped to establish the artist as a leader of the American Pre-Raphaelite movement. Probably painted in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, during the summer of 1860, the canvas displays the exactness for which Pre-Raphaelite painting was known. From the veins on the leaves in the foreground and the individual blades of grass, details are rendered as precisely as possible. Following John Ruskin’s advice, Richards sought to imitate nature as closely as he was able; replicating the original pattern of God’s creation, his aim was to represent perceived truth as the highest form of artistic beauty.

Object Description

Deciduous trees, ferns, etc.


Keywords: landscape (representation)