Hudson River School Art

A remarkably fresh, naturalistic and rare depiction of the environs of Lake George! It is possibly from the late 1860’s, after the Civil War when his work became more naturalist in m...

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 in...

This painting by Howard Russell Butler captures the serene, almost mystical presence of a Yellowstone geyser in a moment of stillness. Known for his ability to portray the grandeur o...

Andrew Melrose River Landscape Signed lower right Watercolor on paper 11 1/2 x 17 inches Not much is known about the early years of Scottish artist Andrew Melrose, but many sources...

George Harvey was born in 1800 in Tottenham, England but moved to the United states at 20 years old and spent several years in the west before he established himself in New York City...

James Brade Sword (1839 - 1915) Couple in the Field Oil on canvas 16 x 20 inches Signed lower left After a childhood in Macao, China, James Brade Sword started out in life, after hi...

Antique American Hudson River School artist working in Italy. Oil on canvas. Framed nicely. No signature found.

Antique American Hudson River School panoramic landscape oil painting. Oil on paper. Framed. Apparently unsigned. Image size, 13L x 8.5H.

Grapes Within Nature is a luminous Hudson River School still life by Virginia Granbery, one of the very few women artists to work with distinction in this genre during the 19th centu...

Edward Moran (American, 1829 - 1901) Boy with Dog on Dock Oil on canvas Signed lower left 22 x 36 inches Provenance: Sotheby's Sale no. 3255 Oct. 27-28, 1977 Page 58 Price on reques...

William M. Hart (1823 - 1894) Interior of a Stable Oil on canvas 17 x 12 inches Provenance William Macbeth Gallery, New York Mrs. Mabel Brady Garvan Collection Christie's New York, Sporting Art, November 28, 1995, Lot 116 Ann Carter Stonesifer, Maryland Estate of above Brunk Auctions, Asheville, North Carolina, January 27 2018, Lot 777 Exhibited New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Life in America, April 24 - October 29, 1939, no. 123, illustrated. New York, Macbeth Gallery, 1892: Sixtieth Anniversary Exhibition, April 1952, p. 5, no. 18. Literature Turner Reuter Jr, Animal and Sporting Artists in America, Middleburg, Virginia, 2008, p. 306. Gary Stiles, William Hart: Catalogue Raisonné and Artistic Biography, no. 1126, illustrated. It should be noted that the Francis Patrick Garvan and Mrs. Mabel Brady Garvan collection, of which this painting was a part of, was one of the foremost American Art collections and now makes up a large part of the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Yale University Art Gallery collections. Born in 1823 in Paisley, Scotland, William Hart emigrated with his parents to the United States at the age of nine and settled in Albany, New York. It was here that Hart first began his artistic training when he was placed under the tutelage of Messrs, Eaton & Gilbert, the prestigious coach-makers from Troy, New York. During this time, Hart learned how to decorate coach panels, covering them with either landscapes or figurative compositions. At the age of seventeen, he was eagerly contemplating an artist’s profession. Consequently, he left the mechanical trade of coach-making and began expanding his artistic pursuits to more refined endeavors. Hart followed coach-making with decorating window shades and later developed an interest in portraiture. Around 1840, he established his first formal studio in his father’s woodshed in Troy. There, he created many likenesses of individuals, affording him a nominal income. Once, he remarked that he felt prouder over his first fee of five dollars for painting a head then for the larger sums he would command later in his career. Nevertheless, his wages from portraits during this early period proved insufficient. Thus, he expanded into landscape painting, allowing him to barter his works or sell them for modest prices. In 1842, Hart moved to Michigan in an attempt to further his success; portraiture remained his primary means of support. Unfortunately, his experiences in the West were disappointing. Hart spent three years living a rough existence until he finally returned to Albany in 1845. Upon his return, he fully devoted himself to the art of landscape painting. Despite his failing health, he worked diligently to perfect his skill until 1849 when he traveled abroad to his native land of Scotland. This trip was made possible through the generosity of his patron and advisor, Dr. Ormsby of Albany. For three years, he studied in the open-air, creating brilliant sketches of the Scottish Highlands and the surrounding British Isles. Returning to Albany once more in 1852, Hart enjoyed improved health and was reinvigorated with purpose. The following year, he moved to New York and opened a studio, promoting himself as a specialist in landscape painting. Hart became a regular contributor to the National Academy of Design. His works received a great deal of attention from artists and connoisseurs alike, all of whom praised him for his fresh, self-taught style. In 1855, he was designated as an associate of the National Academy of Design; three years later he was elected to Academician. In 1865, he was unanimously chosen to be the first president of the Brooklyn Academy of Design. It was during his tenure there that he delivered his famous lecture The Field and Easel, which emphasized the distinguishing principles of landscape art in America. Hart argued that landscape painters should express the “look of the place” being depicted.Critics during the 1870s noted his sensitive balance between capturing a strict “real” interpretation of nature and that of a more “ideal” sentimental tone. For instance, in 1869, Putnam Magazine noted that Hart brought back “exquisite studies” of the surrounding Tappan...

Bathing at Long Branch-“Oh, Ain’t it Cold” Wood engraving, 1871 Signed in the block with the artist's initials "WH", see photo Published in: Every Saturday, Aug. 16, 1871 Condition: ...

John Frederick Kensett (1816 - 1872) Portrait of an Italian Fencer, circa 1845-47 Watercolor on wove paper 13 1/8 x 8 1/8 inches Signed with initials and inscribed lower right "J.F.K. Rome" From October 1845 through the spring of 1847, Kensett lived in Rome. He attended classes where he sketched from live models, and he sketched in the countryside outside Rome and around Florence, Perugia, and Venice, places he visited with his artist friends. He fulfilled commissions for paintings from Americans in Italy, and by 1847 his career was well established. Son of an English immigrant engraver, John Kensett lacked enthusiasm for that medium and became one of the most accomplished painters of the second generation of Hudson River School painters. His reputation is for Luminism, careful depiction of light, weather, and atmosphere as they affect color and texture of natural forms. He was particularly influenced by the painting of Asher Durand in that he focused on realism and detail rather than the highly dramatic views associated with Thomas Cole. Going to the western United States in the mid 1850s and the 1860s, he was the first of the Hudson River School painters to explore and paint the West. Kensett was born and raised in Cheshire, Connecticut, and learned his engraving from his father, Thomas Kensett with whom he worked in New Haven, Connecticut until 1829. He continued working until 1840 as an engraver of labels, banknotes and maps and was employed part of that time by the American Bank Note Company in New York City. There he met Thomas Rossiter, John Casilear, and other artists who urged him to pursue painting. In 1840, he and Rossiter, Asher Durand, and Casilear went to Europe where Kensett stayed for seven years and supported himself by doing engraving but became accomplished in landscape painting. Having sent canvases of Italian landscapes back to New York, he had a reputation for skillful painting that preceded him. When he returned to New York City in 1847, he was an "instant success" and very sought after by collectors. Two of his Italian landscapes had already been purchased by the American Art Union. By 1849, he was a full member of the National Academy of Design and was generally popular among his peers. His studio was a gathering place with travelers stopping by to see his canvases and to identify "precise locations in the Catskills or Newport or New England in the oil sketches and drawings that covered his walls." (Zellman 170). For the women, he was a popular bachelor, "romantic looking with high forehead and sensitive expression." (Samuels 262) He was also sought after by many organizations. Among his activities were serving on the committee to oversee the decoration of the United States Capitol in Washington DC, and becoming one of the founders of the Metropolitan Museum in New York. An inveterate traveler, Kensett spent summers on painting excursions away from New York City. One of these trips was a special painting excursion with fifteen other artists sponsored by the B & O Railroad from Baltimore, Maryland to Wheeling, West Virginia. Unlike many of the Hudson River painters...

In Mountain Stream, Henry Boese presents a majestic and serene vision of the American wilderness. A crisp, rushing stream flows through the heart of the composition, cascading over r...

On the Beach at Long Branch - The Children's Hour Wood engraving, 1874 Published in "Harper's Weekly" August 15, 1874 (p. 672) Image size: 9 1/4 x 13 5/8 inches Provenance: Wunderlic...

Alfred Thompson Bricher, an American artist celebrated for his exquisite marine and landscape paintings, created "Boats Sailing Between Mountains." This piece exemplifies Bricher’s m...

Charles Henry Chapin - American (1830 - 1889) “High Peaks of the Adirondacks” Note: Peaks include Mount Marcy, Haystack Mountain, Basin Mountain, as viewed from the Ausable Lake Area...

Lovely genre scene by American impressionist Henry Bacon (1839-1912). The Beekeeper's Daughter (1881) Oil on canvas 35" x 36" 42.5" x 33" x 3" framed Signed and dated "Henry Bacon ...

Wall was born in Ireland and arrived in New York in 1812. He was already a well trained artist and soon became well known for his watercolor views of the Hudson River Valley and surr...

"Sailing Through Choppy Waters at Sunset" captures the dramatic beauty of the American maritime experience, evoking both the power of nature and the resilience of the human spirit. T...

This evocative interior scene by Francis William Edmonds functions as a quiet yet powerful meditation on slavery, secrecy, and moral resistance in 19th-century America. At first glan...

Mountain Horse Ride is a richly atmospheric painting that captures the quiet dignity of rural life. Though unsigned, the work demonstrates a refined handling of figure, animal, and l...

Label on stretcher bar: No. 175. / AMERICAN ART-UNION. /Road-Side View / Painted by / Seth Eastman / Distributed December 20, 1850.

This is classic Norton Bush and one of our few Americans who traveled to South and Central America at this date to do these exotic scenes. He employed a Hudson River School techniqu...

George Frederick Morse Hubbard Park, Crescent City, Florida, 1906 Oil on canvas 17 x 12 inches A landscape and marine painter from Portland, Maine, George Morse was a founding membe...

Alfred S. Wall (American, 1825-1896) Untitled (Building the Railroad), 1859 Oil on canvas 14 1/2 x 18 1/2 inches Signed and dated lower left For Christmas, 2008, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette featured Alfred Wall's painting, Old Saw Mill from the collection of the Westmoreland Museum of American Art in Greensburg, PA. It was painted in 1851 in the town of Lilly, Pennsylvania in the Allegheny Mountains. The newspaper description stated that "though the saw mill is long gone, it still conveys all the warmth and coziness of this time of year. The article, written by Patricia Lowry, continued: At first glance, Alfred S. Wall's painting of a saw mill in snowy woods triggers nostalgia for the coziness of a log cabin, the smell of a wood-burning fire and the warming of chilled hands and feet beside it. But as sentimental as it seems on the surface, Mr. Wall's painting has a deeper and unexpected context. This is more than a painting about sled-riding children and early industry planted in the middle of virgin forest. Intended or not, this is a painting about conquering the great divide of the Allegheny Mountains. For the third consecutive year, the Post-Gazette features a winter-scene painting on the cover of the Christmas Day newspaper. This year's painting, Old Saw Mill, was selected by co-publisher and editor-in-chief John Robinson Block and executive editor David Shribman during a visit to the Westmoreland Museum of American Art in Greensburg. Mr. Wall, listed as a portrait painter in the 1850 census, was about 26 when he painted Old Saw Mill in 1851. The self-taught artist was born in Mount Pleasant, Westmoreland County, to William and Lucy Wall, who'd emigrated from England around 1820. An artistic sensibility ran in the family: William was a sculptor who carved ornate tombstones here; Alfred's children, A. Bryan and Bessie, were landscape painters, as was Alfred's older brother, William Coventry Wall. For more than a century the Walls formed a prominent art dynasty in Pittsburgh, and Alfred, eventually a partner in the city's most prestigious art gallery, was well known as a painter, dealer and restorer. In Old Saw Mill, two wood cutters, each holding an axe, meet outside the mill; one points in the direction of the forest. On the other side of the stream, one child pulls another down the hillside on a sled. Just behind the hill's slope, the roof of a building appears, perhaps the home of the sawyer. The luminous, late afternoon light comes from the northwest, casting lengthening shadows on the snow under a darkening sky. The saw mill in "Old Saw Mill" likely would have been impossible to track down had Mr. Wall, presumably, not written on the back of the painting: "old saw mill near Jct. 4, Portage RR, Pa." "There was no Junction 4," said Mike Garcia, park ranger at the Allegheny Portage Railroad National Historic Site, about 90 miles east of Pittsburgh near Gallitzen, Cambria County. "But there was an Inclined Plane No. 4 at Lilly, and there was a saw mill there." In fact, there were at least six saw mills at Lilly over the years, said longtime resident Jim Salony, president of the Lilly-Washington Historical Society. But when he saw an image of the painting, Mr. Salony had no trouble coming up with a location. While there are no known photographs of the saw mill, he believes it stood near the intersection of Portage and Washington streets, next to Bear Rock Run. Mr. Salony, retired academic dean at Mount Aloysius College, didn't know exactly when the mill was torn down, but it's been gone since at least the late 1800s. He was pleased to learn of the painting, even though that knowledge came too late for inclusion in a new book about Lilly, The Spirit of a Community, for which he served as primary author and editor. It runs to more than 700 pages. For a little town -- population 869 last year -- Lilly has a lot of history. Nestled in a bowl on the western slope of the Allegheny Mountains about 3 miles south of Cresson, Lilly was first settled in 1806 by Joseph Meyer and his family, who named their 332-acre land patent Dundee. Although the Meyers had left by 1811, other settlers followed, but the community didn't flourish until the 1830s, when the Allegheny Portage Railroad began its 23-year-run through the town. For 200 years the Alleghenies had stood as an impediment to trade and travel between Pittsburgh and the east. A canal from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh would change that and compete with New York's Erie Canal. But a portage railroad would have to be built, on which teams of horses would lead the canal boats over the mountains. Engineer Sylvester Welch began his surveying from the small settlement at Lilly. The railroad would require 10 inclined planes, some quite steep, between Hollidaysburg and Johnstown. To build it, trees had to be cut along a 120-foot-wide right-of-way for 36 miles, along which track and engine houses had to be built. William Brown, who owned the saw mill on Bear Rock Run, built at least one of the engine houses at Inclined Plane No. 4; an 1834 contract also included fencing the dwelling lots at the head and foot of the plane. Lilly is located at what was the foot of Inclined Plane No. 4., giving the community one of its early informal names, Foot of Four. Named in 1883 for Richard Lilly, who'd completed the grist mill there, Lilly had another early name: Hemlock, so dubbed by a Portage Railroad traveler who smelled the bark stripped from the trees at the saw mill. Because there isn't another Allegheny Portage Railroad location like it, where a cut in the mountains opens into a bowl, Mr. Salony thinks it was Lilly that Charles Dickens wrote about following his trip from Harrisburg to Pittsburgh on the Pennsylvania Canal in late March 1842, describing what he saw after emerging from "the bottom of the cut": "It was very pretty while traveling, to look down into a valley full of light and softness, catching glimpses through the tree-tops of scattered cabins; children running to the doors; dogs bursting out to bark, who we could see without hearing; terrified pigs scampering homeward; families sitting out in their rude gardens; cows gazing upward with a stupid indifference; men in their shirt-sleeves looking on at their unfinished houses, planning out to-morrow's work; and we riding onward, high above them, like a whirlwind." To get to Lilly, Mr. Wall may have taken the Pennsylvania Canal from his home in Allegheny City, now the North Side. He'd married young, at 21, to Sarah Carr in 1846, the same year he began his career as an artist. By 1880 they were living in a brick townhouse at 104 (later 814) Arch St., now demolished. Across the river in Pittsburgh he shared a studio at 67 Fourth Ave. with his brother William; they later moved to Burke's Building, today the city's oldest office building at 209-211 Fourth. But often they worked outdoors, sometimes as part of the colony of artists that grew up around painter George Hetzel beginning in the late 1860s at Scalp Level...

This painting is listed in the W.H. Cadbury and H.F. Marsh book Arthur Fitzwilliam Tait: Artist in the Adirondacks, Newark, Delaware, 1986, no.59.36t. It is hand-signed "AF Tait...

"A Day in June, Scene Eastchest, New York" 1898 Edward Gay (Irish, American, 1837-1928) Oil on Canvas Complimented by original frame in great condition Signed and Dated Lower Right T...

John George Brown (1831–1913) was a prominent British-born American painter, renowned for his genre paintings that vividly depict the everyday life of chi...

Oil on canvas by American artist Joseph Rusling Meeker, painted in 1877. This signed original work measures 12 x 14.25 inches and depicts an early autumn landscape of the American South, showing two boaters on a tranquil lake rendered in the Hudson River School tradition. Signed lower left. The scene is intimate and quietly luminous — warm autumnal light filters through the canopy and reflects off still water, with the two small figures lending the composition a sense of human scale against the enveloping natural world. Meeker brings to this modest-sized canvas the same romantic atmosphere and careful observation of light that defines his larger bayou paintings...

Leading Hudson River School Painter Famous for New England Views.

This richly detailed Hudson River School painting by William Guy Wall presents a striking view of a waterfall near Hot Springs, Virginia. Painted with warm, earthy tones and a glowin...

George Henry Smillie was an American painter and etcher. He became a member of the National Academy of Design in 1882. He often painted both in oils and in water colour. His favourit...

Signed lower right: W Whittredge

This charming Hudson River School study by Virginia Granbery captures a tender and distinctly American moment: children playing baseball in a sunlit clearing. Painted by one of the f...

William Guy Wall, a renowned artist of the early 19th century, is celebrated for his exquisite landscape paintings, and particularly with this watercolor. This painting, titled, "Nat...

"Rainbow Over Niagara Falls, NY" by John Henry Hill is a breathtaking painting that beautifully captures the awe-inspiring grandeur of one of nature's most magnificent wonders. In th...

This distinguished oil portrait of President John Tyler was painted by William Garl Brown, one of the South’s most respected portrait artists of the mid-19th century. Capturing Tyler...

Signed lower left: Blakelock

Samuel Coleman's "Fishing Along the Meder River at the Edge of Vic, Spain" is a captivating painting that beautifully captures both the charm of the riverside, and the beauty of the ...

Monogrammed and dated lower right: JW. 71; on verso: Indian Summer / By Jw. Williamson / N. Y. 1871 –

This beautiful oil on canvas painting of two sisters playing by the famous American Artist John G Brown has been lined. There is a slight touch up, and i...

Covered Bridge Deep in the New England Forest is a captivating work that exemplifies the essence of the Hudson River School's artistic vision. This painting portrays a covered bridge...

This Oil on Wood American Landscape painting is done by John Mackie Falconer (1820-1903) and is signed center left. The scene is of New Haven Connecticut l...

Edward Lamson Henry (American, (1841 - 1919)) “The Warning” Grisaille on paper mounted on board, signed lower left ‘E L Henry’ (partially obscured by frame) ...

"Rocky Seascape" by Lemuel D. Eldred is a captivating painting that masterfully captures the raw beauty and power of the sea. Eldred, an accomplished 19th-century American marine art...

John A Mooney is a Virginian artist who has been known to paint trompe loeil and landscape paintings. Born in Buffalo, New York, John A. Mooney (1843-1918) traveled to Georgia to enl...

Theodore E. Pine (1828-1905) was an American artist known for his portraits and genre paintings. Pine specialized in portraiture, capturing the likenesses and personalities of his su...

Signed lower right: J.R. Brevoort.

"A View of Irvington on Hudson," a watercolor by John Henry Hill, captures the picturesque beauty of Irvington, a charming village nestled along the Hudson River. Hill, celebrated fo...

Frank Anderson's "Sketch of the Well" is a delicate and evocative drawing rendered in graphite on paper. Created in 1865, this work captures the simplicity and intimacy of a moment c...

A beautifully preserved example of mid-19th-century American frame craftsmanship, this giltwood frame from the 1860s reflects the classical elegance favored by the Hudson River Schoo...

Signed lower right & dated 1888.

Walking Home in the Snow by John Carleton Wiggins is a captivating winter landscape that evokes the tranquil beauty of rural life. The painting depicts a lone figure, likely a young ...