Quiet Seascape

William Trost Richards was intensely interested in waves. To study them, he waded into the water or spent hours at a time observing them from the beach. The result was maritime paintings of startling, almost photographic, realism. Richards, who was born in Philadelphia, spent his summers in Rhode Island and later traveled through Great Britain, France, and Norway seeking dramatic coastlines. This seascape may show a beach on the island of Jersey, in the English Channel. This painting once belonged to James J. Hill (1838-1916), the Minnesota railroad magnate whose collection of European paintings forms the basis of the Institute's nineteenth-century holdings.