Sketch of Trees (Clouds?) (from Sketchbook VII) 1886

William Trost Richards made this sketch of trees or clouds with graphite on paper, as part of Sketchbook VII. Richards, who lived through the Civil War, found solace and escape in the meticulous depiction of nature. During the 19th century, landscape art was deeply entwined with ideas of national identity and expansion. For white Americans, the landscape was seen as a symbol of manifest destiny, a divinely ordained right to expansion. Richards's art, while seemingly apolitical, must be understood in the context of the displacement and violence inflicted on Indigenous populations to seize land for white settlement. His sketches provide a window into the artist's personal engagement with the world. It is in these intimate encounters with nature that Richards sought to capture the sublime, a way of experiencing nature that was detached from the socio-political issues of his time. The artwork invites us to reflect on our own relationship with nature, as a space of both beauty and complex historical significance.