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Hudson River School Art

HUDSON RIVER SCHOOL STYLE

Considered the first major American painting movement, the Hudson River School emerged in the first half of the 19th century with landscape paintings that celebrated the young country’s natural beauty. Most of its leading painters were based in New York City where they exchanged ideas and traveled to the nearby Hudson River Valley and Catskills Mountains to re-create their vistas. At a time when the city was increasingly dense, the Hudson River School artists extolled the vast and pristine qualities of the American landscape, a sentiment that would inform the conservation movement.

American art was dominated by portraiture and historical scenes before Thomas Cole, the founder of the Hudson River School, began painting the Catskill Mountains in 1825. While the Hudson River School was informed by European art aesthetics, particularly the British focus on the sublime in nature, it was a style imbued with nationalism. The landscape painters who followed and studied under Cole would expand their focus from the Northeastern United States to places across the country, their work shared through prints and portfolios promoting an appreciation for the American wilderness — Niagara Falls, the mountain ranges that dot the American West and more — as the style blossomed during the mid-19th century.

Cole’s student Frederic Edwin Church as well as painters such as Albert Bierstadt, John Frederick Kensett, Asher Brown Durand and others became prominent proponents of the Hudson River School. The American art movement also had close ties to the literary world, including to authors like William Cullen Bryant, Henry David Thoreau and James Fenimore Cooper who wrote on similar themes. Although by the early 1900s the style had waned, and modernism would soon guide the following decades of art in the United States, the Hudson River School received renewed interest in the late 20th century for the dramatic way its artists portrayed the world.

Find a collection of authentic Hudson River School paintings, drawings and watercolors and more art on 1stDibs.

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Style: Hudson River School
"Building the Allegheny Railroad, Pennsylvania" Alfred Wall, Scalp Level School
"Building the Allegheny Railroad, Pennsylvania" Alfred Wall, Scalp Level School

"Building the Allegheny Railroad, Pennsylvania" Alfred Wall, Scalp Level School

Located in New York, NY

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...

Category

1850s Hudson River School Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

“Seaside Cliffs, California”
“Seaside Cliffs, California”

“Seaside Cliffs, California”

By George Douglas Brewerton

Located in Southampton, NY

Beautiful original pastel on archival card stock from Paris of the craggy seaside cliffs of California by the well known Hudson River artist, George Douglas Bremerton. Signed lower left. Circa 1880. Condition is excellent. Under glass. The artwork is housed in its original ornate scroll designed frame. Overall framed measurements are 33 by 19 inches. Provenance: A East Coast Florida estate. George Douglas Brewerton received lessons in art from Prof. Robert W. Weir at West Point where his father was Superintendent. In 1874, he was detailed to San Francisco as an officer in the Stevenson Regiment. In 1848, he underwent many adventures in Western deserts and mountains with Kit Carson, who crossed the country with news of the California Gold Rush. After serving as an aide to Gen. Rufus Saxton during the Civil War, Brewerton called himself “Colonel,” although he never received an army commission...

Category

1870s Hudson River School Art

Materials

Pastel, Archival Paper

Hudson River School Watercolor Titled Fishing the Creek
Hudson River School Watercolor Titled Fishing the Creek

Hudson River School Watercolor Titled Fishing the Creek

By David Johnson

Located in Fredericksburg, VA

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...

Category

Late 19th Century Hudson River School Art

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

Trees and Fields, Print Club of Cleveland
Trees and Fields, Print Club of Cleveland

Trees and Fields, Print Club of Cleveland

By Peter Takal

Located in Berlin, MD

“Trees and Fields” lithograph commissioned for the Print Club of Cleveland by Peter Takal Peter Takal’s original lithograph “Trees and Fields” is an accomplished work of art created in 1957. This lithograph bears the stamp “The Print Club of Cleveland” on verso. This impression is signed by Takal in pencil. “Trees and Fields” is a fine example of the art created by the 20th century Romanian / German / American artist, Peter Takal. Peter Takal: Born in Romania in 1905, Peter Takal spent most of his youth in Berlin and was mainly self-taught. His first one-man exhibition took place in the Gurlitt Gallery, Berlin, in 1932. During the following seven years his art was frequently exhibited at galleries in Berlin, Munich, Paris and as well as Casablanca and Algiers. At the beginning of the Second World War (1939), Peter Takal came to the United States for an exhibition of his art at the Katherine Kuhe Gallery, Chicago. He decided to remain in the United States and became an American citizen in 1944. Living in New York, Peter Takal quickly established himself as a leading printmaker and a modern master of both lithography and drypoint engraving. One-man exhibitions of his art took place in New York City (1942), Chicago (1939 & 1941), Washington (1959) and Los Angeles (1966). International exhibitions of his art were held at the Galeria de Arte Mexicano, Mexico City (1959), the Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, Italy (1960) and at the Kestner-Museum in Germany (1962). Museums to date that include Peter Takal's original prints in their collections are, the Chicago Art Institute, the Library of Congress, Washington, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the United States State Department, UCLA, the Berlin National Museum and the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris. Over the years, the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Arkansas Arts Center have acquired a very extensive collection of Peter Takal's lithographs and drypoints. The artist died in 1995. The Print Club of Cleveland: The Print Club of Cleveland is a non-profit adjunct organization and the country's first museum-affiliated print club devoted to the promotion of art and printmaking as a fine art for printmakers and collectors alike. With its creation in 1919, it has helped to support the growth of the department of prints and drawings at the Cleveland Museum of Fine Arts and has also been a source of great enrichment for collectors of fine prints. During the organizations long history, the club has annually commissioned one original etching engraving, lithograph, woodcut and or other form of original graphic art from such fine American artists as John Taylor Arms, Suzanne Anker, Luigi Lucioni, Will Barnet, Mark Tobey, Lyonel Feininger, Henry George Keller, Louis Lozowick, Karl Schrag, David Jansheski, Deborah Remington, and Peter Takal, as well as from leading international artists such as Henri Matisse, Edmund Blampied, Jean-Emile Laboureur, Salvador Dali, Michael di Cerbo, Phyliss Sloane, Paolo Boni, Juvenal Sanso...

Category

Mid-20th Century Hudson River School Art

Materials

Lithograph

Rapelyea House, New York, William Rickarby Miller, Hudson River School Landscape
Rapelyea House, New York, William Rickarby Miller, Hudson River School Landscape

Rapelyea House, New York, William Rickarby Miller, Hudson River School Landscape

By William Rickarby Miller

Located in New York, NY

William Rickarby Miller Rapelyea House, New York, 1884 Signed and dated lower left Oil on canvas 20 x 30 inches Provenance: Kennedy Galleries, New York Born in Staindrop, County Durham, England, he was a portrait and landscape painter, especially appreciated for watercolor painting, which he sold through the American Art Union...

Category

1880s Hudson River School Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Niagara Falls 1870s Large Panoramic Oil Painting New York State And Ontario
Niagara Falls 1870s Large Panoramic Oil Painting New York State And Ontario

Niagara Falls 1870s Large Panoramic Oil Painting New York State And Ontario

Located in Sutton Poyntz, Dorset

Alexandre Le Bihan. French ( b.1839 - d.1924 ). Niagara Falls. Oil On Canvas. Signed Lower Left. Image size 23.2 inches x 49.2 inches ( 59cm x 125cm ). Frame size 28.9 inches x 55.1...

Category

Late 19th Century Hudson River School Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Picnic in the Vineyard Spring Contemporary French Impressionist Style Landscape
Picnic in the Vineyard Spring Contemporary French Impressionist Style Landscape

Picnic in the Vineyard Spring Contemporary French Impressionist Style Landscape

By Alexandr Rapoport

Located in Soquel, CA

Spring Picnic in the Vineyard, Contemporary Impressionist Landscape Beautiful oil painting of a variety of fruits with cups in a field of grass by Alexander Rapoport (Russian-Ameri...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Hudson River School Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

19th century etching black and white seascape print boats water buildings signed
19th century etching black and white seascape print boats water buildings signed

19th century etching black and white seascape print boats water buildings signed

By Thomas Moran

Located in Milwaukee, WI

This black and white etching by American painter and print maker of the Hudson River School in New York: Thomas Moran, is a rare Klackner #53 of the catalogue raisonné, depicting "The Harbor of Vera...

Category

1880s Hudson River School Art

Materials

Parchment Paper, Etching

"Grand Manan" Harrison Bird Brown, Maine Landscape, Hudson River School Seascape
"Grand Manan" Harrison Bird Brown, Maine Landscape, Hudson River School Seascape

"Grand Manan" Harrison Bird Brown, Maine Landscape, Hudson River School Seascape

By Harrison Bird Brown

Located in New York, NY

Harrison Bird Brown (1831 - 1915) Grand Manan Oil on canvas 12 x 20 inches Signed with initials lower left Harrison Bird Brown was born in 1831 in Portland, Maine, and is best known for his White Mountain landscapes and marine paintings of Maine's Casco Bay...

Category

Late 19th Century Hudson River School Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

The Jolly Flat Boat Men
The Jolly Flat Boat Men

The Jolly Flat Boat Men

By George Caleb Bingham

Located in Missouri, MO

The Jolly Flat Boat Men, 1847 After George Caleb Bingham (American, 1811-1879) Engraved by Thomas Doney (French, active New York 1844-1849) Engraving with Hand-Coloring Published by The American Art-Union, New York (1838-1851) Printed by Powell and Co. 18 x 24 inches 32 x 38 inches with frame In 1847, the American Art-Union purchased Bingham’s painting "The Jolly Flat Boat Men" (1846; National Gallery of Art) directly from the artist. The subscription-based organization, founded in 1838 as the Apollo Association, boasted nearly ten-thousand members at this date. For an annual fee of five dollars, each received a large reproductive engraving and was entered in a lottery to win original artworks exhibited at the Art-Union’s Free Gallery. Aimed at educating the public about contemporary American art, the organization developed an impressive distribution network that reached members in every state. The broad circulation of the Art-Union's print helped to establish Bingham's reputation and made his river scene famous. Born in Augusta County, Virginia in the Shenandoah River Valley, George Caleb Bingham became known for classically rendered western genre, especially Missouri and Mississippi River scenes of boatmen bringing cargo to the American West and politicians seeking to influence frontier life. One of his most famous river genre paintings was The Jolly Flatboatmen completed in several versions in 1846. This first version of this painting is in the Manoogian Collection at the National Gallery of Art. Fame resulted for this work when it was exhibited in New York at the American Art Union whose organizers made an engraving of 10,000 copies and distributed it to all of their members. Paintings such as Country Politician (1849) and County Election (1852) and Stump Speaking (1854) reflected Bingham's political interests. In 1819, as an eight-year old, he moved to Boon's Lick, Missouri with his parents and grandfather who had been farmers and inn keepers in the Shenandoah Valley near Rockingham, Virginia. Reportedly as a child there, he took every opportunity to escape supervision to travel the River and watch the marine activity. His father died in 1827, when his son was sixteen years old. His mother had encouraged his art talent, but art lessons were not easily obtainable. In order to earn money, he apprenticed to a cabinet maker but determined to become an artist. By 1835, he had a modest reputation as a frontier painter and successfully charged twenty dollars per portrait in St. Louis. "His portraits had become standard decorations in prosperous Missouri homes." (Samuels 46). In 1836, he moved to Natchez, Mississippi and there had the same kind of career, only was able to charge forty dollars per portrait. He remained largely self taught until 1837, when he, age 26 and using the proceeds from his portraiture, studied several months at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. He later said that he learned much of his atmospheric style and classically balanced composition by copying paintings in collections in St. Louis and Philadelphia and that among his most admired painters were Thomas Cole, John Vanderlyn, and William Sidney Mount. Between 1856 and 1859, Bingham traveled back and forth to Dusseldorf, Germany, where he studied the work of genre painters. Some critics think these influences were negative on his work because during that time period, he abandoned his luminist style that had brought him so much public affirmation. Bingham credited Chester Harding (1792-1866) as being the earliest and one of the most lasting influences on his work. Harding,a leading portraitists when Bingham was a young man, had a studio in Franklin, near Bingham's home town. In 1822, when Bingham was ten years old, he watched Harding finish a portrait of Daniel Boone. Bingham recalled that watching Harding with the Boone portrait was a lasting inspiration and that it was the first time he had ever seen a painting in progress. Harding suggested to Bingham that he begin doing portraiture by finding subjects in the river men, which, of course, opened the subject matter that established fame and financial success for Bingham. Harding also encouraged Bingham to copy with paint engravings. He later painted two portraits of Boone but, contrary to the assertions of some scholars, he did not do Boone portraits in the company of Harding. Bingham's portraits of Boone are not located, but one of them, a wood signboard for a hotel in Boonville circa 1828 to 1830, showed a likeness of Boone in buckskin dress...

Category

1840s Hudson River School Art

Materials

Engraving

Tree Study, Lake George
Tree Study, Lake George

Tree Study, Lake George

By Worthington Whittredge

Located in New York, NY

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...

Category

Mid-19th Century Hudson River School Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Landscape of Pond and Field After Rain Titled "Cranes After the Rain"
Landscape of Pond and Field After Rain Titled "Cranes After the Rain"

Landscape of Pond and Field After Rain Titled "Cranes After the Rain"

Located in Fredericksburg, VA

This serene landscape by a Hudson River School artist captures the quiet tension between storm and calm, rendered with luminous color and delicate brushwork. A soft sunset glows behi...

Category

Late 19th Century Hudson River School Art

Materials

Oil, Board

High Peaks in the Adriondacks
High Peaks in the Adriondacks

High Peaks in the Adriondacks

By Charles H. Chapin

Located in Saratoga Springs, NY

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...

Category

Late 19th Century Hudson River School Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Mid-19th Century Mountain Stream Oil Painting, Hudson River School
Mid-19th Century Mountain Stream Oil Painting, Hudson River School

Mid-19th Century Mountain Stream Oil Painting, Hudson River School

By Henry Boese

Located in Fredericksburg, VA

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...

Category

Mid-19th Century Hudson River School Art

Materials

Oil, Board

Autumn Landscape (NH) by Hudson River artist Henry A. Ferguson (1845-1911)
Autumn Landscape (NH) by Hudson River artist Henry A. Ferguson (1845-1911)

Autumn Landscape (NH) by Hudson River artist Henry A. Ferguson (1845-1911)

By Henry A. Ferguson

Located in New York, NY

Painted by Hudson River School artist Henry A. Ferguson (1845-1911), "Autumn Landscape (NH)" is oil on canvas and measures 9 x 15 inches. The painting is signed and dated 1864, at th...

Category

19th Century Hudson River School Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Tropical Landscape
Tropical Landscape

Tropical Landscape

By Norton Bush

Located in Bryn Mawr, PA

Norton Bush (1834-1894) Tropical Landscape Oil on board, 8 3/4 x 11 3/4 inches (22.2 x 29.8 cm) Signed lower left: N. Bush Provenance Private collection, New York; Private collection, Pennsylvania First noted for his portraits, marine views, and East Coast landscapes, Norton Bush became best known for his tropical views of Central and South America. He studied in New York City with the Hudson River school painter Jasper Cropsey and received criticism from another Hudson River school painter, Frederic Edwin Church. Like many who worked in the Hudson River school style, Bush also sought to inspire viewers with an expansive view of nature that dwarfed the relative influence and position of man. He first became interested in painting exotic...

Category

19th Century Hudson River School Art

Materials

Oil

Early 20th Century Oil Painting of Jamestown, Virginia Landscape
Early 20th Century Oil Painting of Jamestown, Virginia Landscape

Early 20th Century Oil Painting of Jamestown, Virginia Landscape

Located in Fredericksburg, VA

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...

Category

Early 20th Century Hudson River School Art

Materials

Oil, Canvas

The Beekeeper's Daughter 1881 oil painting by Henry Bacon
The Beekeeper's Daughter 1881 oil painting by Henry Bacon

The Beekeeper's Daughter 1881 oil painting by Henry Bacon

By Henry Bacon

Located in Hudson, NY

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 ...

Category

1880s Hudson River School Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Mid-19th Century Signed Still Life of Apples by Hudson River School
Mid-19th Century Signed Still Life of Apples by Hudson River School

Mid-19th Century Signed Still Life of Apples by Hudson River School

By George Harvey

Located in Fredericksburg, VA

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...

Category

Mid-19th Century Hudson River School Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

"Western Lake Landscape, " John Fery, Hudson River School View
"Western Lake Landscape, " John Fery, Hudson River School View

"Western Lake Landscape, " John Fery, Hudson River School View

By John Fery

Located in New York, NY

John Fery (1859 - 1934) Western Lake Landscape, circa 1920 Oil on canvas 21 x 23 1/4 inches Signed lower left Provenance: Private Collection, New York Born in Austria, John Fery earned a strong reputation for dramatic paintings of western mountain landscape in the United States. Glacier National Park in northwest Montana was a popular subject for him. He was raised in a prominent, wealthy family that lived on an estate about nineteen miles northeast of Salzburg. His mother was Hungarian, and his father was born in Bohemia. S ome sources have written that he studied art in Dusseldorf, Germany with Peter Jansen, and also in Munich, Venice and Karlsruhe. But his "name does not appear in the records of the major art schools in any of these places, nor is there any record of his name at either the Vienna or Budapest academies." (Merrill 26) It is possible, however, that he received private instruction, and because of the sophistication of his painting, sources think it unlikely that he was self taught. An early interest in wilderness scenery led him to painting American landscapes and hunting scenes. In the mid 1880s, he came to America and lived in the German community in Milwaukee, and then in 1886, brought his family to the United States. His wife, Mary Rose Kraemer (1862-1940), was born in Switzerland, and they had one child born near Munich and two others born in the United States. From 1886 to 1888, they lived in New York, and by 1890, Fery had made his first trip West. He visited Yellowstone Park in 1891, and indicated in his writings that he had been there even earlier. From 1892 to 1893, he led European nobility on hunting expeditions to the American Northwest, made possible by the completion of the Northern Pacific Railroad...

Category

1920s Hudson River School Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Tropical Sunset, Exotic South America
Tropical Sunset, Exotic South America

Tropical Sunset, Exotic South America

By Norton Bush

Located in New York, NY

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...

Category

1890s Hudson River School Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

A Day in June, Scene Eastchest, New York
A Day in June, Scene Eastchest, New York

A Day in June, Scene Eastchest, New York

By Edward B. Gay

Located in Missouri, MO

"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...

Category

1890s Hudson River School Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

"Portrait of an Italian Fencer, " John Frederick Kensett, Hudson River School
"Portrait of an Italian Fencer, " John Frederick Kensett, Hudson River School

"Portrait of an Italian Fencer, " John Frederick Kensett, Hudson River School

By John Frederick Kensett

Located in New York, NY

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...

Category

1840s Hudson River School Art

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

19th Century Rocky Seascape Painting, Oil on Board, Signed
19th Century Rocky Seascape Painting, Oil on Board, Signed

19th Century Rocky Seascape Painting, Oil on Board, Signed

By Lemuel D. Eldred

Located in Fredericksburg, VA

"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...

Category

Mid-19th Century Hudson River School Art

Materials

Board, Oil

The Warning
The Warning

The Warning

Located in Saratoga Springs, NY

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

Category

Late 19th Century Hudson River School Art

Materials

Oil, Board, Laid Paper

Covered Bridge in New England Forest, Oil on Canvas, Mid-19th Century
Covered Bridge in New England Forest, Oil on Canvas, Mid-19th Century

Covered Bridge in New England Forest, Oil on Canvas, Mid-19th Century

Located in Fredericksburg, VA

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...

Category

Mid-19th Century Hudson River School Art

Materials

Oil, Canvas

Picnic On The Mohawk
Picnic On The Mohawk

Picnic On The Mohawk

Located in Milford, NH

A wonderful landscape by American artist Thomas Mickell Burnham (1818-1866). Burnham was born in Boston, MA and received informal art training early on, traveling abroad before relo...

Category

Mid-19th Century Hudson River School Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Yellowstone Geyser
Yellowstone Geyser

Yellowstone Geyser

Located in Fredericksburg, VA

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...

Category

Early 20th Century Hudson River School Art

Materials

Oil, Board

Mid-19th Century Hudson River School Oil Painting, Framed
Mid-19th Century Hudson River School Oil Painting, Framed

Mid-19th Century Hudson River School Oil Painting, Framed

Located in Fredericksburg, VA

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...

Category

Mid-19th Century Hudson River School Art

Materials

Oil, Canvas

19th Century Mountain Horse Ride Oil Painting, Hudson River School
19th Century Mountain Horse Ride Oil Painting, Hudson River School

19th Century Mountain Horse Ride Oil Painting, Hudson River School

Located in Fredericksburg, VA

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...

Category

19th Century Hudson River School Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Fishing Along the Meder River at the edge of Vic, Spain
Fishing Along the Meder River at the edge of Vic, Spain

Fishing Along the Meder River at the edge of Vic, Spain

Located in Fredericksburg, VA

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 ...

Category

Mid-19th Century Hudson River School Art

Materials

Oil, Board

Oil Landscape titled "A View of Irvington on Hudson"
Oil Landscape titled "A View of Irvington on Hudson"

Oil Landscape titled "A View of Irvington on Hudson"

By John Henry Hill

Located in Fredericksburg, VA

"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...

Category

Late 18th Century Hudson River School Art

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

Watercolor River Landscape titled "Enjoying Calm Waters"
Watercolor River Landscape titled "Enjoying Calm Waters"

Watercolor River Landscape titled "Enjoying Calm Waters"

Located in Fredericksburg, VA

"Enjoying Calm Waters" is a captivating 19th-century American School watercolor landscape that epitomizes the beauty of a northern American scene. This exquisite piece showcases the ...

Category

19th Century Hudson River School Art

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

Antique 1860s Hudson River School Gilt Frame with Egg-and-Dart and Bead Molding
Antique 1860s Hudson River School Gilt Frame with Egg-and-Dart and Bead Molding

Antique 1860s Hudson River School Gilt Frame with Egg-and-Dart and Bead Molding

Located in Jacksonville, FL

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...

Category

Late 19th Century Hudson River School Art

Materials

Wood

Marco Aurelio Tricca Pastoral Landscape Oil, 1929
Marco Aurelio Tricca Pastoral Landscape Oil, 1929

Marco Aurelio Tricca Pastoral Landscape Oil, 1929

Located in Astoria, NY

Marco Aurelio Tricca (American, 1880-1969), Pastoral Landscape Scene, Oil on Canvas mounted on Board, 1929, signed and dated to verso, carved wood frame. Image: 24" H x 30" W; frame:...

Category

Early 20th Century Hudson River School Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Hudson River School art for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Hudson River School art available for sale on 1stDibs. Works in this style were very popular during the 21st Century and Contemporary, but contemporary artists have continued to produce works inspired by this movement. If you’re looking to add art created in this style to introduce contrast in an otherwise neutral space in your home, the works available on 1stDibs include elements of blue, orange, purple and other colors. Many Pop art paintings were created by popular artists on 1stDibs, including Ralph Albert Blakelock, Jane Bloodgood-Abrams, Jasper Francis Cropsey, and John Frederick Kensett. Frequently made by artists working with Paint, and Oil Paint and other materials, all of these pieces for sale are unique and have attracted attention over the years. Not every interior allows for large Hudson River School art, so small editions measuring 2 inches across are also available. Prices for art made by famous or emerging artists can differ depending on medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $400 and tops out at $875,000, while the average work sells for $13,267.