Critical Archive of the Visual and Related Arts
William Trost Richards
American; 19th-century, 20th-century
St. Louis, MO: Saint Louis Art Museum
44%
Calm Before the Storm. c1900. Oil on canvas
I think it's the varnish that gives this painting such an ugly sheen, but whatever it is it's awful. Certain American paintings glisten like nothing else in the Western tradition, and it's typically to their detriment. I'm thinking of Asher Durand, who's able somewhat to get away with it because there's so much particularity to his subjects that a gleaming surface can seem to accent his infinitesimal depictions. Richards is too painterly — there's too much of his hand at work — so the sheen detracts. There's a lack of development, too, to the form of his waves, which is tough to look at once one's appreciated, say, the hardness of Winslow Homer. Homer always managed to give his seascapes structure by firming up his waters' crests and ripples — but his waves never seem unlively. (Marsden Hartley took this and ran.) There are no features to center or to order Richards' ocean — and the sky just drifts away — but there's also too much substance to allow it to become pure painting. (2025)