Calm Before a Storm, Newport

ca. 1874

Already established as a landscape painter in oils, William Trost Richards began working in watercolor in earnest about 1870 and over the next decade was widely regarded as one of America’s best watercolorists. This turn to the medium coincided with a new focus on coastal subjects—watercolor was particularly well suited both to sketching outdoors and to capturing the constantly shifting climatic conditions at the water’s edge. He generally used an additive technique: laying down transparent washes of color and then applying touches of more opaque paints to create body and texture.