(b London, 1731; d London, 18 Dec 1810). English painter and stage designer. From 1759 Richards was a very successful painter at Covent Garden, London, where he collaborated with Nicholas Thomas Dall ( fl 1760–71; d 1777) and Giovanni Battista Cipriani, and from 1777 to 1803 he was the theatre’s Principal Painter. From 1762 he exhibited landscapes and ruin pieces at the Society of Artists of Great Britain, as well as a scene from a stage setting for the Maid of the Mill (New Haven, CT, Yale Cent. Brit. A.); engraved by William Woollett in 1768, it achieved great popularity. Richards exhibited at the Free Society of Artists from 1769 to 1783, and was a founder-member of the Royal Academy, where from 1769 to 1809 he exhibited capriccios and landscapes, and occasionally, early intimations of the picturesque, such as a Cascade at Hestercombe (signed and dated 1770; Stourhead, Wilts, NT). His watercolours, such as Orpington (1768; Port Sunlight, Lady Lever A.G.), show a fondness for the picturesque qualities of crumbling masonry and thatched cottages well ahead of Paul Sandby. In 1786 Richards was elected Secretary of the Royal Academy. In 1791 he repaired Leonardo’s cartoon of the Virgin and Child with SS Anne and John the Baptist (London, N.G.). He continued to design for the theatre; one of his drawings, Gothic Hall (1794; Windsor Castle, Berks, Royal Col.) is associated with a production of Netley Abbey at Covent Garden. After his death his collection of paintings, drawings and prints was sold (12–14 March 1811). Included in the sale were many of his own works, along with pictures by, or attributed to Poussin, Rembrandt, Rubens, Gossart and Johan Zoffany, and various 17th-century Dutch paintings. The drawings included a sketchbook and loose sketches by Reynolds.

• Richards, John Inigo
  • Lambert, George