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Richards 1866" (lower right) oil on canvas over panel 135/8 x 241/8 in. (34.6 x 61.3 cm) painted in 1866 provenance Private Collection, new york Although William Trost Richards~dq~s early Pre-Raphaelite paintings and drawings, and, of course, his later seascapes, have been fully documented, less attention has been paid to the transitional landscapes that he painted in the year before he went to Europe in 1867. In such paintings as lighthouse of 1865 and valley of wyoming of 1866 (both in private collections), Richards simplifies his compositions and, responding afresh to clear outdoor light, moves away from the meticulous detail of his earlier work and towards a greater breadth of handling and atmospheric effect. That greater breadth and subtlety is readily apparent in view in the white mountains, dated 1866, and identified by Charles Vogel as a view of Mount Lafayette from Franconia Notch in New Hampshire. Although the foreground detail is precisely rendered, the unity of the whole scene is not sacrificed-as it had been in some of Richards~dq~s previous landscapes-to a close attention to nature~dq~s minutiae. The hills and foliage of the middle ground are sweepingly handled, drawing the viewer~dq~s attention instead to the distant mountains, the backlit clouds, and the roseate hues of fading sunlight. The feeling of serenity is reinforced by the light reflected in the lake, a perfect mirror of evening calm. Paintings such as view in the white mountains are prescient of Richards~dq~s later paintings and watercolors which, though always precisely drawn, are more about light, atmosphere and compositional unity than they are about any particular place. Richards did not return to the White Mountains as a subject until the early 1870s, and then only in watercolor, which had by then become his preferred medium. Among the group of watercolors that Richards~dq~s friend and patron, the Rev. Elias Magoon, gave to the newly established Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1880 is a view of Mount Lafayette from Franconia which, like this oil, reveals the artist~dq~s sensitivity to atmospheric color and light.