26. Thomas Miles Richardson Jr.
(1813-1890)
Loggers by a Lake in Switzerland

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Richardson, Loggers by a Lake

Loggers by a Lake in Switzerland

Drawing in watercolor and white gouache, 1850, on tan wove paper laid down on thin board, signed and dated in ink, 161 x 239 mm. The sheet has never been washed and the colors and white heightening are fresh; the paper, however, has probably darkened and the edges of the sheet show a brown line of staining from the old mat opening. Richardson was a member of the Royal Watercolor Society and an important figure in the preeminently British art of watercolor painting. He traveled extensively on the continent, searching, like many of his colleagues, for the picturesque. Views in the Swiss and Italian Alps were probably his favorite subjects. Though he essayed (and was successful at) the large-scale watercolors that meant financial reward, competing with oils, he was probably at his best in the smaller, more poetic scenes that focused on a single action or event in an atmospheric landscape.