Tokens of a Friendship: Miniature Watercolors by William T. Richards

Tokens of a Friendship is an appropriate title for the exhibition of Richard and Gloria Manney’s collection of miniature watercolors by William T. Richards. The words apply directly to the brilliant little watercolors Richards painted for his friend and patron George Whitney. Yet the title is also fitting for an exhibition of works from the collection of Richard and Gloria Manney. The Manneys’ insight and generosity place them in the tradition of the inspired collectors who have established close ties with the Museum.

William T. Richards was a leading Philadelphia landscape and marine painter active during the third quarter of the nineteenth century. He was supported and encouraged by Whitney, a wealthy Philadelphia industrialist and art collector. At the time of Whitney’s death in 1885, his collection included 146 European paintings and 106 American works, including 87 oils and watercolors by Richards. In addition, there were approximately 185 miniature watercolors Richards had painted between 1885 and 1884 in honor of his friendship with Whitney. These “little gems,” as Whitney called the watercolors, measure only three by five inches and were regularly enclosed in Richards’ letters from Newport and England. The correspondence and the paintings offer an extraordinarily complete and privileged view of the relationship between an artist and his patron in the nineteenth century. [This book was originally published in 1982 and has gone out of print. This edition is a print-on-demand version of the original book.]