Anna Richards was the daughter of noted Rhode Island marine artist William Trost Richards. Born in Germantown, PA, she exhibited at the National Academy in New York at the age of 14. In 1888 she studied at the Cowles Art School in Boston under Dennis Bunker, with Mowbray on the North Shore, and later in New York with William Merit Chase and John LaFarge, as well as in Paris at the Academy Julian. She lived in England for nine years and painted in Europe, Egypt, Palestine and North Africa. Form 1896 to 1905, she kept a studio in London.
After marrying William Tenney Brewster and settling in Scarsdale, New York, in 1910, she founded the Scarsdale Art Association. She continued to spend summers in Matunick, Rhode Island, where she painted and sketched for more than 30 years, and continued to travel extensively in Europe and North Africa.