Charles Richards

Charles Richards (New Orleans) "Crouching Woman"

Charles Richards was born in 1906 in Rome, Mississippi. He started his career at the age of 15 as a copy boy for the Memphis Press. In 1927, he arrived in New Orleans and took a reporting job on the New Orleans Item. Over the following decades, he reported for newspapers throughout the South and East in cities such as New Orleans, Houston, Memphis and New York. As was common practice during the first half of the 20th century, Richards illustrated his own newspaper stories with imaginative drawings and portraits. Richards turned to fine art full-time in 1945, producing diverse works of landscapes, figures, portraiture and sculpture. New Orleans became his home base, although he continued to travel widely. His works are found in various traditional media including oil, pastel and Conte. Numerous collections hold works by Richards including the Historic New Orleans Collection and the Ogden Collection. Richards died in Gulfport, Mississippi in 1992. He was an iconic artist whose talent is lesser-known only because not as many of his paintings come up for sale as do those of more prolific painters such as George Dureau, Robert Gordy and Ida Kohlmeyer.