Art at Noon: William Trost Richards' Watercolors and Gift Giving

About this event

To coincide with the exhibition One After Another: Series and Studies, join us for a conversation about watercolor landscapes and gift giving.

Lea C. Stephenson, Kenneth R. Woodcock Curator of Historical American Art at PAFA, and artist and instructor in the Fine Arts Certificate Program Douglas Martenson will discuss William Trost Richards and his late nineteenth-century watercolor landscapes of Rhode Island. Richards created jewel-like watercolors for his patron, Philadelphia industrialist and art collector George Whitney, which became a visual testament to the friendship between artist and patron. Sharing their perspectives as a curator and artist, Stephenson and Martenson will illuminate artist-patron relationships and how Richards was at the forefront of the American watercolor movement as artists experimented with the medium to capture natural details and paint outdoors.

Martenson has served the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts for thirty years as a professor of Drawing and Painting and currently teaches in the Fine Arts Certificate Program.

This talk coincides with the exhibition One After Another: Series and Studies, where Richards’ Rhode Island watercolors will be on view.