This biography from the Archives of AskART:
|  Born in London, England, Thomas Addison Richards, age 11, came to
Hudson, New York, and then spent the remainder of his youth in
Penfield, Georgia. He became one of the first artists to bring
the beauty of the natural landscape of the South to the widespread
attention of Americans through numerous paintings, illustrated travel
guides, and magazine articles.
His early talent was shown in his
150 pages of watercolor sketches about his trip from England. At
age 18, a book of his flower paintings was published, and this was
followed by an illustrated book on Georgia, which is credited with
having some of the earliest pictures of the state of Georgia. He
also did portraits and landscapes, and in 1845, went to New York City
to study at the National Academy of Design, where he became, for forty
years, corresponding secretary during its greatest growth and
influence.
In addition, he organized the first class for women at Cooper Union and
was professor of art at New York University from 1867 to 1887. He
traveled widely in the United States and Europe, and in 1857 did
handbooks of American travel that became a model of their kind.
Source:
Michael David Zellman, 300 Years of American Art
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Biography from Charleston Renaissance Gallery:
| Thomas Addison Richards was an early promotor of the Southern
landscape. English by birth and raised in New York State, where
his family had immigrated to in 1831, he set out with his brother
William Carey Richards for the South when he was little more than
twenty years of age.
In Penfield, Georgia they published and
illustrated a small book, which celebrated in words and pictures such
scenic wonders as "Tallulah Falls," "The Lover's Leap on the
Chattahoochee" and "Falls of Tawaliga." Addison provided the
original art work from which fine steel engravings of these subjects
were made.
The brothers were so encouraged by the success of
this, their first venture, that they quickly followed it up with the
first number of The Orion", a monthly literary magazine.
William, as the new editor, introduced Addison, thus: "Our brother is
permanently connected with the work as artist, and we are happy to add,
as a contributor. He will travel from Virginia to Louisiana. . .
we will furnish one splendid original Southern landscape every
number."(1)
Addison Richards was not only engaged in providing
the original art work but in turning it into lithographs and engravings
as well. His fame as painter and printer preceded him to
Charleston where he located himself at the end of 1843. A review that
appeared in the "Rambler" of December 30 hailed the arrival of the
creator of the plates in "Georgia Illustrated" and advised the
Charleston public: "those who desire to ornament their parlors with
exquisite home views will do well to commission some from his easel."
(2)
One of Addison Richard's motives in residing in Charleston
was to find a public that would perhaps be interested in taking
painting lessons. In this same regard, he received the endorsement of
the Rambler editor who wrote: "His mode of teaching is
thoroughly practical, making nature the model and the imitation of
nature, the end." (3)
Within a year Addison Richards had
abandoned Charleston to seek further training for himself in New York
City. He enrolled at the National Academy of Design, and in four years
was made an Associate of that institution, which was a great
honor. He participated in New York's most prestigious art
exhibitions by his regular submission of Southern material.
Through the 1850s he showed nothing but Southern landscapes at the Academy's annual exhibitions, while his Valley of Jocassee, South Carolina, Southern Landscape Scenery and Valley of Nacoochee, Georgia all found buyers at the American Art Union's show and sale of 1845 and quickly established a reputation for the young artist.
He
reached a broad audience, continuing to publish his art work as book
illustrations as well as taking up writing on Southern subjects.
Literature did not escape his interest, for he came out with Tallulah and Jocassee or Romances of Southern Landscape and Other Tales, in 1852. Harper's New Monthly Magazine
published his article entitled 'The Landscape of the South,' in which
Addison extolled the beauties of the Southern mountains, rivers,
waterfalls and the growing number of springs as desirable vacation
spots.
In his book, The Romance of American Landscape (1855), which he illustrated with such Southern scenes as Birthplace of Washington, Va., and Cascade of Toccoa, Ga.,
he offered an apology for the relative death of Southern landscape as a
deterrent to artists working there as well as the "mosquitos and
Miasmas" with which artists had to contend. (5)
At the
beginning of the sixties, Addison, responding no doubt to a sudden
distaste for southern landscape material on the part of New York art
collectors, took up still-life painting. Though his fame today
rests on his landscapes, his still lifes are beautifully composed, and
they deserve more attention.
Addison made New York City his
home for the rest of his life. He took on the duties of
Corresponding Secretary for the National Academy of Design in 1852, a
post he filled for forty years, and he taught at New York University
from 1867 until 1887.
He traveled in the Far West, from whence
he brought back glowing pictures of the Grand Canyon, but to the
connoisseur of Southern art, T. Addison Richards will best be
remembered for his landscapes of the Southland done in the early
decades of his long and distinguished career.
Sources:
(1) Louis T. Griffith. T. Addison Richards: Georgia Scenes by a Nineteenth Century Artist and Tourist. Bulletin. Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia, Vol. 1. No. 1. Fall 1974, p. 11.
(2) Anna Wells Rutledge. Artists in the Life of Charleston (reprint edition) Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1980, p. 166.
(3) Rutledge. p. 151.
4) Mary Bartlett Cowdrey. American Academy of Fine Arts and American Art Union. New York: 1953.
(5) Jessie J. Poesch. "Growth and Development of the Old South, 1830 to 1900."
Painting in the South: 1564-1980. Richmond: The Virginia Museum of Fine
Arts, 1983, p. 79. Cynthia Seibels, Copyright 1990, Robert M. Hicklin
Jr., Inc. |
Biography from Questroyal Fine Art, LLC:
|  Thomas Addison Richards was one of the nineteenth century’s most popular painters of the Southern landscape. Born in London, Richards grew up in the center of the American landscape movement: the area surrounding the Hudson River Valley in Hudson, New York. Lured by the mystery of the South, he set off in search of new vistas and new paths and began his professional career in Georgia and South Carolina. There he earned fame as a painter, printer, and art instructor before rejoining the art world in New York City. He traveled widely, finding fresh inspiration in the Catskill Mountains, the American West, and Europe, but continually returned to the Southern scenes that had first captured his imagination and established his renown.
His wide-ranging talent and versatility allowed him to carve out success in nearly every medium and genre: Richards was known for the landscape paintings, watercolors, illustrations, articles, and guidebooks that he based on his travels, as well as his fruit and floral still lifes, portraits, and seascapes. He became an influential member of the American art world, one who occupied an important post at the National Academy of Design for forty years, served as a professor of art at New York University for twenty, and arranged the first classes for women at the Cooper Union School of Art.
Richards exhibited at the National Academy of Design and the Brooklyn Art Association throughout his life; his paintings were also featured at the Boston Art Club, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the American Art Union, and the American Watercolor Society. His work is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the Butler Institute of American Art, the Adirondack Museum, the Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum, the Farnsworth Art Museum, and the Morris Museum of Art. |
Biography from Questroyal Fine Art, LLC:
| Thomas Addison Richards was one of the nineteenth century’s most popular painters of the Southern landscape. Born in London, Richards grew up in the center of the American landscape movement: the area surrounding the Hudson River Valley in Hudson, New York. Lured by the mystery of the South, he set off in search of new vistas and new paths and began his professional career in Georgia and South Carolina. There he earned fame as a painter, printer, and art instructor before rejoining the art world in New York City. He traveled widely, finding fresh inspiration in the Catskill Mountains, the American West, and Europe, but continually returned to the Southern scenes that had first captured his imagination and established his renown.
His wide-ranging talent and versatility allowed him to carve out success in nearly every medium and genre: Richards was known for the landscape paintings, watercolors, illustrations, articles, and guidebooks that he based on his travels, as well as his fruit and floral still lifes, portraits, and seascapes. He became an influential member of the American art world, one who occupied an important post at the National Academy of Design for forty years, served as a professor of art at New York University for twenty, and arranged the first classes for women at the Cooper Union School of Art.
Richards exhibited at the National Academy of Design and the Brooklyn Art Association throughout his life; his paintings were also featured at the Boston Art Club, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the American Art Union, and the American Watercolor Society. His work is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the Butler Institute of American Art, the Adirondack Museum, the Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum, the Farnsworth Art Museum, and the Morris Museum of Art. |
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Addison Richards is also mentioned in these AskART essays:
Hudson River School Painters
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