Anna Richards Brewster was active as a painter, illustrator and sculptor. She was born in Germantown, Pennsylvania, in 1870, a daughter of the renowned marine painter
William Trost Richards (1833-1905).
Brewster, who had inherited her father's artistic bent, displayed her creative talents at an early age. She received her first formal instruction at the Cowles Art School in Boston, where she was taught by Dennis Miller Bunker and H. Siddons Mowbray. During the late 1880s she attended classes at the National Academy of Design in New York, working under John La Farge and William Merritt Chase. Between 1890 and 1895 she made several trips to Paris, studying under such artists as Benjamin Constant and Jean-Paul Laurens. Throughout these years, until his death, her father acted as a continual source of encouragement and inspiration.
At the age of twenty-five Brewster went to England. During 1896-1897 she resided at Clovelly in Devon where she painted the region's coastal scenery, often in the company of her father (a frequent visitor to England throughout his career). Late in 1897 or early in 1898 she moved to London, establishing her studio at Cheyne Gardens in the Chelsea district. After marrying a London physician in 1905, she and her husband returned to the United States. They lived in Manhattan for several years before moving to Scarsdale, New York, where Brewster would remain for the rest of her life. She continued to paint, draw and sculpt, submitting her work to exhibitions throughout America. She also became active in local art affairs, helping found the Scarsdale Art Association. In addition, she made painting trips to Europe, Africa, the Middle East as well as Matunuck, Rhode Island.
Anna Richards Brewster died in 1952. She had been a member of the National Academy of Women Painters and Sculptors and the American Water Color Society. Her work was also shown at the annual exhibitions of the National Academy, where she was awarded the Dodge Prize (for the best picture at the annual exhibition by a woman artist) in 1899. Examples of her work can be found in the collections of Harvard University, the New Britain (Conn.) Museum of Art and the Indianapolis Art Museum, to name only a few. Two of her sketchbooks, reflecting work done in the British and Channel Islands, were published in 1954 and 1958.
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