Sketchbook of English Landscape and Coastal Scenery

1878

In the summer of 1878 Richards and his family left for a two-year sojourn in England. The artist’s first destination on his arrival was Tintagel, the legendary home of King Arthur, in Cornwall. The Cornish site was newly resonant with the publication of Alfred Lord Tennyson’s epic Arthurian poem cycle, Idylls of the King. Richards recalled that “our first sight of King Arthur’s castle was by twilight on a cloudy day,” an atmosphere in keeping with the romance of the place. The dramatic setting of the ruined castle and fortification, built on two cliffs high above the Atlantic that were separated by a spectacular chasm, would become one of Richards’s most popular subjects. Many drawings in this sketchbook record impressions from his first visit to Tintagel, capturing details of the site from various vantage points.