A Cloudy Day

Alfred Thompson Bricher painted the meeting point of rock and water along the New England coast, over and over, with a patience that borders on obsession. Low tide, wet stone, thin surf, and a horizon usually placed high enough to give the water most of the canvas. He started in business, taught himself to paint, and worked initially in the White Mountains and along the Hudson before the coast took over completely. Chromolithographs after his work sold widely, which spread his name further than his gallery sales did. The watercolours are worth as much attention as the oils. He was elected to the American Watercolor Society and handled the medium with a lightness the oil paintings sometimes lack. Critics of his own time found him repetitive, which is fair, though the repetition is also what makes the best examples so precisely observed.