Daughter of Christopher B. Coleman, secretary of the Indiana Historical Society[4] and professor of history at Butler College,[5] Richardson was born in Berlin[1][2][3] and grew up in the Irvington neighborhood of Indianapolis.
She graduated from Laurel School in Shaker Heights, Ohio, and attended Vassar College for two years[6] before transferring to the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where she studied from 1925 until 1928.
[5] It was there that she met her future husband, Edgar Preston Richardson,[4] a student of painting who later became an art historian and museum director.
[8] She also painted portraits and genre scenes in addition to landscapes; her work has been described as reminiscent of Edward Hopper.
[9] The painting Fourth of July is owned by the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.