David Johnson
Hudson River School Watercolor Titled Fishing the Creek
c. 1880

Name: Hudson River School Watercolor Titled Fishing the Creek
Brand: David Johnson
Price: 4500 USD
Availability: InStock

About the Item

David Johnson was born in 1827 in New York City. Beginning in 1845, he studied for two years in the antique school of the National Academy of Design. His classmates and colleagues included Frederic Church, Sanford R. Gifford, and George Inness. He also received limited instruction from Jasper Cropsey, and some by his older brother. He also made sketching trips in the Catskill mountains. His first dated landscape was completed in 1848. He traveled in New York, New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, New Jersey, and Virginia, creating thinly painted landscapes characterized by careful construction, meticulous naturalism, and an avoidance of dramatic effects. (nga 2023). Like this painting, he often painted forest interiors, views in ravines, lake scenes, and large tree studies. These were usually shown at the Academy or the Brooklyn Art Association, although he also sent works to exhibitions in Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, and Utica, New York. This painting is in excellent condition and is monogrammed bottom right and is matted and framed.

Creator:

David Johnson (1827-1908, American)

Creation Year:

c. 1880

Dimensions:

Height: 4.75 in (12.07 cm)Width: 6 in (15.24 cm)

Medium:

Paper,Watercolor

Movement & Style:

Hudson River School

Period:

Late 19th Century

Condition:

Gallery Location:

Fredericksburg, VA

Reference Number:

1stDibs: LU2574212648652

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David Johnson

A landscape painter based in New York City and associated with the second generation of Hudson River School painters, David Johnson was noted for his ability to delineate accurate rock formations and foliage. He was especially influenced by the work of Hudson River painters Jasper Francis Cropsey, John Casilear, and John Frederick Kensett. He also painted an occasional still life.

Johnson was born and raised in New York City, but little else is known about his early life. He studied briefly with Cropsey but said that his best teacher was nature, which he utilized in his paintings from his frequent trips to the Hudson River Valley, especially the areas around West Point and Fort Putnam.

Johnson painted his first nature studies in 1849, and that year first received public acclaim for his work exhibited at the National Academy of Design and the American Art Union. In 1860, he was elected a full Academician.

Primarily Johnson painted in the Northeast, doing views of the Catskills, Adirondacks, Lake George, the Hudson River and the White Mountains, where he worked in the early 1850s with a colony of artists around North Conway. His early landscapes tend to be panoramas, rock studies, or forest interiors. In the middle of his career, he adopted a more luminist style and did tranquil marine scenes such as flowing rivers, and his later work showed Tonalist influence of the French Barbizon School with pastoral subjects. It is written that this period in his career was not much distinguished and that "Influenced by the barbizon style, his work became monotonous and less articulate." (Michael David Zellman, 300 Years of American Art)

In the 1880s, Johnson’s reputation began to diminish, and by the time he died his work was virtually unappreciated. Many years later, it was re-discovered by scholars who appreciated his great skills of naturalist documentation.

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(Biography provided by Saratoga Fine Art)