John Inigo Richards

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John Inigo Richards in the group portrait The Academicians of the Royal Academy by Zoffany

John Inigo Richards RA (1731– 18 December 1810) was a British landscapist who became one of the founding members of the Royal Academy in 1768, and was secretary to the Academy from 1788 until his death.

Life[edit]

Corfe Castle, Dorset by John Inigo Richards (Yale Center for British Art)

He studied art at the St Martin's Lane Academy in London, where he was a pupil of George Lambert (1700–1765), sometimes regarded as the "Father of English Landscape Oil Painting".

Like his contemporary Francis Hayman, Richards worked as a scene painter in London's theatres (1777–1803). He retained a lifelong interest in theatre design.[citation needed] He is credited with the design of the Chestnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia. (America's first purpose-built professional theatre, opening in 1793), built for his brother-in-law Thomas Wignell.[1]

When Richards died in 1810 he acknowledged that Mary Ann Ritchards who had been born to the actress Ann Pitt in 1759 was his daughter. He left her a snuff box which was decorated with a picture of her mother and his former lover.[2]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Bordman, Gerald; Hischak, Thomas S. (2004). "Chestnut Street Theatre". The Oxford Companion to American Theatre (3rd, revised ed.). Oxford University Press. p. 125. ISBN 9780195169867. Retrieved 11 August 2012.
  2. ^ Dwayne Brenna, ‘Pitt, Ann (c.1720–1799)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2013 accessed 9 Feb 2015
Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain"Richards, John Inigo". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.

External links[edit]