Object number1883.2.2
Legendary England: Tintagel
Portfolio/SeriesSecond in the series History of England
Date1882
Artist
William Trost Richards
(American, 1833-1905)
CultureAmerican
MediumWatercolor on paper
DimensionsImage: 8 11/16 x 16 1/8 in. (22 x 41 cm)
Mount: 15 9/16 x 21 7/16 in. (39.5 x 54.5 cm)
Mount: 15 9/16 x 21 7/16 in. (39.5 x 54.5 cm)
Credit LineGift of Elias Lyman Magoon
On View
Not on viewPeriod19th c
Classification(s)
SignedOn recto, signed lower left corner in watercolor: Wm.T.Richards.
InscribedOn recto, by artist, lower left corner in watercolor: 1882.
BibliographyFoshay, Ella M., and Sally Mills. All Seasons and Every Light: Nineteenth Century American Landscapes from the Collection of Elias Lyman Magoon. Poughkeepsie, N.Y: Vassar College Art Gallery, 1983, p. 83;
Phagan, Patricia. “Drawings at Vassar to ‘Illustrate the Loftiest Principles and Refine the Most Delighted Hearts.’” Master Drawings 42, no. 2 (2004): 133–44. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1554650. P. 136
Mundy, James. The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center: Vassar College The History and Collection. New York: Prestel Publishing, 2007, p. 93;
Phagan, Patricia. Past Time: Geology in European and American Art. London: D Giles Limited, 2018, pp.126-127;
The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College. Humanizing Landscapes: Geography, Culture and the Magoon Collection. Poughkeepsie, NY, cat. no. 48ProvenanceCommissioned by Dr. E. L. Magoon and presented to Vassar CollegeVassar Exhibitions
Exhibition HistoryAll Seasons and Every Light, Vassar College Art Gallery, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY, October 14 - December 16, 1983; DeCordova and Dana Museum and Park, Lincoln, MA, February 5 - March 25, 1984; Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, FL, March 25 - July 1, 1984; Mary and Leigh Block Gallery, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, November 16, 1984 - January 13, 1985;The Humanizing Landscapes: Geography, Culture and the Magoon Collection, Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY, October 5 - December 20, 2000;
Catching Light: European and American Watercolors from the Permanent Collection, Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY, May 8 - July 26, 2009;
Past Time: Geology in European and American Art, Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY, September 21 - December 9, 2018; Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, February 16 - May 12, 2019
Label TextIn 1882, the American painter William Trost Richards completed a series of seven watercolors featuring notable English landmarks, each representing a distinct historical or allegorical theme. Richards had toured and sketched these sites during his travels in Britain from 1878 to 1880. Elias Magoon, a dedicated collector of Richards’ work and one of Vassar’s founding trustees, commissioned these paintings and later donated them to the college. For Legendary England, the artist chose Tintagel Castle on the Cornish coast in Devon, portrayed as a daunting citadel rising from rocky cliffs and surrounded by crashing waves. The ruins of this early thirteenth-century castle had long been associated with the legend of King Arthur, a tale revived and popularized in the nineteenth century by Alfred Lord Tennyson in his grand cycle of poems, Idylls of the King.
DescriptionA depiction of a rocky coastline leading to a cliff face with buildings, including Tintagel Castle atop it. Waves crash against the rocks as the water undulates.
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