As an artist William Trost Richards traveled extensively up and down the eastern coast of the United States. Rejecting the overly romantic and stylized approach of such other Hudson River painters as Jasper Cropsey or Worthington Whittredge, Richards instead preferred to capture his seascapes with an extraordinary realism. Such exquisite Luminist renderings and atmospheric qualities are present in his works that they are reminiscent in refinement and subject to the works of such American greats as Francis A. Silva and Alfred Thompson Bricher.
From 1856 until 1867 William Trost Richards was best known for his still life and landscape paintings which were executed near his home in Germantown, Pennsylvania. Trained in metalwork and then as an illustrator his pictures were flawless and almost slavish photographic renditions of his subjects. It was in 1866 while studying abroad in England that Richards became fascinated with a storm at sea and began to study the structure of waves - their rise and fall - as well as how such a storm affected the water and the shoreline In the early 1870's, William Trost Richards returned from his studies abroad and purchased a summer home on Conanicut Island, just off the coast of Newport, Rhode Island. Here he began to turn his attention solely to maritime subjects and as a result he began to develop his true appreciation for the ocean. Living in almost complete isolation with continuous access to the sea, Richards completed numerous paintings. It is these marine seascapes for which Richards is best remembered today and which make him one of America's truly great artists.
Spring Tide stands as an exceptional marine painting done by an American artist in the 1870’s. Richards was a step above many other Americans in his technical training as an academic artist. Why this is so important to note, is that for 1875 this work is tightly executed but exhibits no primitive or unrefined qualities which still pervaded many of even our best artist’s works of this period. The quality and expression of light in this painting is unparalleled.
Spring Tide exhibits a finely achieved sky and mood which is both alluring and lovely yet there is an undercurrent and hint of turbulence and darker mood. Like all people, Richards was awed by nature and he never tired of tackling the difficult task of capturing the oceans complexity as well as that of the sky above. We have often declared that he was America’s finest marine artist.
Important to note, that as with almost all of his work, it is important that there is no human reference or element to his work. He almost never puts a figure into his canvases, which keeps the focus on the nature and not man’s relationship to it.
This is potentially his NAD exhibition painting of 1875 entered at the National Academy of Design. And if so, it should be noted that he offered that if it sold the proceeds should to assist the Academy in paying off its mortgage.
He often painted the New Jersey coast and usually he depicted it with simply the sand, tide and sky. Here we have a fuller composition as he includes the sea grasses and a broader perspective on this area of coastline. There is a subtle metaphoric reference here to the tides of life and to the seasons and the hope and promise that comes with these cycles.