Skip to main content

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.

to
37
109
52
48
33
20
Overall Width
to
Overall Height
to
2
223
31
6
8
2
5
1
2
1
2
116,640
63,750
56,618
28,184
14,717
9,490
6,629
5,835
4,152
3,128
2,523
2,358
2,132
608
191
67
2
81
81
60
33
31
27
25
23
20
20
17
14
13
10
9
8
8
8
8
7
242
227
147
140
39
6
5
3
3
3
201
3
259
3
Style: Hudson River School
Walking Home in the Snow
Walking Home in the Snow

Walking Home in the Snow

By John Carleton Wiggins

Located in Fredericksburg, VA

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 ...

Category

Mid-19th Century Hudson River School Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Portrait of Woman with Jewelry
Portrait of Woman with Jewelry

Portrait of Woman with Jewelry

Located in Fredericksburg, VA

Richard Clague was sent to school in Geneva to study painting with Jean-Charles Ferdinand Humbert (1813-1881) where Richard developed a preference for landscape painting. Following his father's death in December, 1836, he received a substantial inheritance which allowed him to continue his studies. After completing his studies, he travelled to Morocco, Algiers and other destinations in the Middle East where he kept a sketchbook (now in the New Orleans Museum of Art, Louisiana) and developed an interest in Oriental subject matter. Although he was largely trained in Europe, he settled in Louisiana, becoming part of the "Bayou School".He regularly painted with William Buck...

Category

Mid-19th Century Hudson River School Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Rocky Seashore
Rocky Seashore

Rocky Seashore

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

Oil, Board

Rainbow Over the Niagara Falls, NY
Rainbow Over the Niagara Falls, NY

Rainbow Over the Niagara Falls, NY

By John Henry Hill

Located in Fredericksburg, VA

"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...

Category

Early 20th 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

Livestock Landscape
Livestock Landscape

Livestock Landscape

By Eugène Joseph Verboeckhoven

Located in Fredericksburg, VA

Eugène Joseph Verboeckhoven, a luminary of 19th-century Belgian art, wielded his brush with unparalleled mastery, capturing the timeless allure of pastoral landscapes and noble anim...

Category

Mid-19th Century Hudson River School Art

Materials

Oil, Board

Figurative Landscape titled "School Time"
Figurative Landscape titled "School Time"

Figurative Landscape titled "School Time"

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

Canvas, Oil

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

Dusk Forest Scene, Catskills by Lockwood DeForest (American, 1850-1932)
Dusk Forest Scene, Catskills by Lockwood DeForest (American, 1850-1932)

Dusk Forest Scene, Catskills by Lockwood DeForest (American, 1850-1932)

Located in New York, NY

"Dusk Forest Scene, Catskills," 1875 by Hudson River School painter Lockwood DeForest (American, 1850-1932) is oil on artists card-stock and measures 9.5 x 7 inches. The work is signed by DeForest, and dated May 13, 1875 at lower right. The work is framed in an elegant, period appropriate frame, and ready to hang. Lockwood DeForest was born in New York in 1850 to a prominent family. He grew up in Greenwich Village and on Long Island at the family summer estate in Cold Spring Harbor. As was customary for a cultivated family in the Gilded Age, the DeForests made frequent trips abroad. Excursions to the great museums, which were prominent on the DeForests agenda, deepened the young Lockwood's familiarity with European painting and sculpture. Though he had begun drawing and painting somewhat earlier, it was during a visit to Rome in 1868 that nineteen-year-old DeForest first began to study art seriously, taking painting lessons from the Italian landscapist Hermann David Salomon Corrodi (1844–1905). More importantly, on the same trip, Lockwood met one of America’s most celebrated painters, (and his maternal great- uncle by marriage) Frederic Edwin Church (1826–1900), who quickly became his mentor. DeForest accompanied Church on sketching trips around Italy and continued this practice when they both returned to America in 1869. Early on in his career, de Forest made a habit of recording the date and often the place of his oil sketches, as to create a visual diary of his travels. Lockwood’s profession as a landscape painter can be primarily attributed to Frederic E. Church and his belief in the young artist’s talent. DeForest often visited Church in the Hudson River community of Catskill where, in addition to sketching trips and afternoons of painting, he assisted with the architectural drawings and planning of Olana. In 1872, DeForest took a studio at the Tenth Street Studio Building in New York. During these formative years DeForest counted among his friend’s artists such as Sanford Robinson Gifford (1823–80), George Henry Yewell (1830–1923), John Frederick Kensett (1816–72), Jervis McEntee (1828–91), and Walter Launt Palmer (1854–1932). Over the next decade DeForest experienced success as a painter. He exhibited for the first time at the National Academy of Design in 1872, and made two more painting trips abroad, in 1875–76 and 1877–78, traveling to the major continental capitals but also the Middle East and North Africa. His trip to the Middle East and the library at Church’s home, Olana, established his interest in design during his mid-twenties. From about 1878 to 1902, landscape painting was overshadowed by his activities and preoccupation with East Indian architecture and décor, a style that became quite fashionable in late nineteenth century America. From 1879-1883, de Forest founded Associated Artists along with Louis Comfort Tiffany, Candace Wheeler...

Category

19th Century Hudson River School Art

Materials

Oil, Board

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

Grapes and Peach
Grapes and Peach

Grapes and Peach

By George Cope

Located in Saratoga Springs, NY

Signed lower right & dated 1888.

Category

1880s Hudson River School Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Sketch of the Well
Sketch of the Well

Sketch of the Well

By Frank Anderson

Located in Fredericksburg, VA

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...

Category

Mid-19th Century Hudson River School Art

Materials

Paper, Graphite

"A Cloudy Day, " View of Montclair, New Jersey, Tonalist, Barbizon Scene
"A Cloudy Day, " View of Montclair, New Jersey, Tonalist, Barbizon Scene

"A Cloudy Day, " View of Montclair, New Jersey, Tonalist, Barbizon Scene

By George Inness

Located in New York, NY

George Inness (1825 - 1894) A Cloudy Day, 1886 Oil on canvas 25 x 30 inches Signed and dated lower center Provenance: The artist Estate of the above Fifth Avenue Galleries, New York, Executor's Sale of Paintings by the Late George Inness, N.A., February 12 - 14, 1895, Lot 132 Joseph H. Spafford, acquired from the above Mrs. Spafford, by bequest from the above Leroy Ireland, New York, 1951 Ernest Closuit, Fort Worth, Texas Meredith Long & Company, Houston, Texas, circa 1960 Private Collection Shannon's Fine Art, American and European Fine Art Auction, October 27, 2016, Lot 42 Exhibited: New York, American Fine Arts Society, Exhibition of the Paintings Left by the Late George Inness, December 27, 1894, no. 90.  Literature: LeRoy Ireland, The Works of George Inness: An Illustrated Catalogue Raisonne, Austin, Texas, 1965, p. 336, no. 1324, illustrated. Michael Quick, "George Inness: A Catalogue Raisonne," Vol. II, New Brunswick, New Jersey, 2007, pp. 282-83, 311, no. 966, illustrated.  George Inness, one of America's foremost landscape painters of the late nineteenth century, was born in 1825 near Newburgh, New York. He spent most of his childhood in Newark, New Jersey. He was apprenticed to an engraving firm until 1843, when he studied art in New York with Regis Gignoux, a landscape painter from whom he learned the classical styles and techniques of the Old Masters. In 1851, sponsored by a patron, Inness made a fifteen-month trip to Italy. In 1853 he traveled to France, where he discovered Barbizon landscape painting, leading him to adopt a style that used looser, sketchier brushwork and more open compositions, emphasizing the expressive qualities of nature. After working in New York from 1854 to 1859, he moved to Medfield, Massachusetts, and four years later to New Jersey, where through a fellow painter he began to experiment with using glazes that would allow him to fill his compositions with subtle effects of light. Duncan Phillips remarked on Inness’s mellow light as a unifying force, saying, “…he was equipped to modernize the grand manner of Claude and to apply the methods of Barbizon to American subjects." At this time also, Inness developed an interest in the religious theories of Emanuel Swedenborg...

Category

1880s Hudson River School Art

Materials

Canvas, Paint, 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.