Skip to main content

David Johnson Paintings

American, 1827-1908

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.

Find original David Johnson paintings on 1stDibs.

(Biography provided by Saratoga Fine Art)

to
2
1
Overall Width
to
Overall Height
to
3
3
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
3
2
1
1
1
3
770
763
733
680
2
3
Artist: David Johnson
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 David Johnson Paintings

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

Figure in a Landscape
By David Johnson
Located in New York, NY
Signed (at lower right): DJ [monogram]; (on back): David Johnson 1865
Category

Mid-19th Century American Realist David Johnson Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Oil landscape of Autumn Forest
By David Johnson
Located in Fredericksburg, VA
This Hudson River School autumn landscape is done by the famed artist David Johnson. He studied at the national Academy of Design in New York. He was best known for the development o...
Category

Mid-19th Century Hudson River School David Johnson Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Related Items
"View of Upper Ausable Lake" John Bunyan Bristol, Glowing Atmospheric Landscape
By John Bunyan Bristol
Located in New York, NY
John Bunyan Bristol View of Upper Ausable Lake Signed lower right Oil on canvas 18 x 30 inches Provenance Wynant D. Vanderpoel III (1939-2018), New York and Palm Beach Estate of the...
Category

1870s Hudson River School David Johnson Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

1920s Century Country Creek Landscape
Located in Soquel, CA
Serene early 20th century landscape of a winding creek in verdant country side with a distant farmhouse in the background, by an unknown artist (American, 20th Century), c. 1920. Pre...
Category

1920s Hudson River School David Johnson Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

1920s Century Country Creek Landscape
1920s Century Country Creek Landscape
$719 Sale Price
20% Off
H 18 in W 15 in D 2 in
Sunset on the Hudson River by Hermann Simon (American, 1846-1895)
Located in New York, NY
Painted by Hudson River School artist Hermann Simon (1846-1895) , "Sunset on the Hudson River" is oil on canvas, measures 15 x 25 inches, and is signed and dated 1875 at the lower ri...
Category

19th Century Hudson River School David Johnson Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Hudson River Landscape by American Artist Johann Hermann Carmiencke (1810-1867)
By Johann Hermann Carmiencke
Located in New York, NY
Painted by Hudson River School artist Johann Hermann Carmiencke, "Hudson River Landscape" is oil on canvas and measures 12 x 18 inches. The painting is signed and dated 1865 at the l...
Category

19th Century Hudson River School David Johnson Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Sunset Along the Front Range, Colorado, 1900s Traditional Landscape Painting
By Charles Partridge Adams
Located in Denver, CO
This stunning, original signed landscape watercolor on paper painting by Charles Partridge Adams (1858-1942) captures the breathtaking beauty of a Colorado sunset along the Front Ran...
Category

Early 20th Century Hudson River School David Johnson Paintings

Materials

Watercolor

Large Scale Early 20th Century Bucolic Mt. Hood Landscape Oil Painting
By William M. Lemos
Located in Soquel, CA
Gorgeous landscape with two cows drinking water in a pond with Mt. Hood in background by listed artist William M. Lemos (American, 1861-1942). Signed "W.M. Lemos" lower right. Presented in vintage gilt-toned frame that shows wear (included as-is). Condition: Good: previously owned and used, with little or no signs of wear and is in good condition. No structural issues. Image size: 29"H x 49"W. Born in New York, Professor Lemos moved to San Francisco in 1887 where he established a studio at 106 Geary Street. He later moved to Santa Cruz in 1896, where he settled, painting murals for many local businessmen and the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. As a boy Lemos earned money by wandering the streets and painting on request. Arriving in San Francisco in 1887, he established a studio at 106 Geary. With his wife Mabel, he worked in Los Angeles for a few years in the 1890s. After settling in Santa Cruz in 1896, he painted murals for many local businessmen. When the original Beach Casino was built there at the Boardwalk in 1904, Lemos was the first concessionaire and worked there for nearly 40 years. On his platform in the Casino, Lemos did paintings of redwoods, still lifes, forest fires, beach scenes, and marines. Many of his oils were done on redwood slabs which were popular with the tourists; in the early days these paintings sold for one dollar and up depending on the size of the work. After his vision failed and he was unable to paint, his last years were mostly spent fishing off the Municipal Pier with a friend who baited his hook for him because he could no longer see. In the March 27, 1941 Santa Cruz Sentinel News Lemos reminisced, "Them were the days when the Boardwalk was only twelve feet long and when business got slow I picked up my shotgun and went across the street and shot ducks where the Casa del Rey Hotel now stands." Exhibited: Calif. State Fair, 1885; Mechanics' Inst. (SF), 1889. In: Santa Cruz City Museum; Wawona Hotel (Yosemite). Edan Hughes, "Artists in California, 1786-1940" His mother was Julia Lemos, a Chicago artist famous for her depiction of the Chicago fire, “Two of Julia’s children became successful artists. Her eldest son, William, was a naïve still life, landscape, and mural painter. As a young boy in New York, he would wander the streets, earning money for the family, by ‘painting on request.’ At age 26, William moved to San Francisco, California. He opened an art studio and kept it running until he moved to Santa Cruz with his wife, Mabel, in 1896. During this period, he worked as a fresco artist painting ‘murals for many local businessmen.’ Exhibited California State Fair, Sacramento, 32nd annual, per Sacramento Daily Union, September 9, 1885. and article goes on to say “William Lemos and wife, Sacramento – Art school exhibits in which are shown such a variety of designs in decorative art, flower painting, and ornamentation, that one must give time to the examination.” Exhibited Mechanics Institute, San Francisco, 1889. “Lemos and his wife were in Fresno California 1890...
Category

Early 20th Century Hudson River School David Johnson Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil, Stretcher Bars

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 David Johnson Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Brooklyn Bridge NYC American Scene Social Realism Mid 20th Century Modern WPA
By Cecil Crosley Bell
Located in New York, NY
Brooklyn Bridge NYC American Scene Social Realism Mid 20th Century Modern WPA Cecil C. Bell (American, 1906-1970) Brookyn Bridge amid the NYC Waterfront 35 ½ x 23 ½ inches Oil on Bo...
Category

1930s American Realist David Johnson Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Antique American Hudson River School Coastal Beach Landscape Oil Painting
Located in Buffalo, NY
Impressive early American modernist abstract oil painting. Framed. Oil on canvas. Signed. Image size, 9.25H by 15L. Artist Bio: This following biography was researched, compiled...
Category

1870s Hudson River School David Johnson Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Autumn Landscape
By William Louis Sonntag Sr. 1
Located in Milford, NH
A wonderful Autumn landscape likely of the Hudson River Valley by the revered American artist William Louis Sonntag (1822-1900). Sonntag was born near Pittsburgh, PA and moved to Cincinnati, OH in the 1840’s to study art. He studied for a brief time with G. Frankenstein at the Cincinnati Academy of Fine Art and his idealized paintings of American wilderness and visionary paintings of imagined European ruins were commercially successful. He traveled twice to Europe in the 1850’s to improve his skills, eventually settling in New York City. He joined the National Academy of Design, where he exhibited his works for forty years. His mature works identify him with the Hudson River School of landscape painters. A romantic and naturalistic painter of his surroundings, Sonntag also created idealized paintings of Roman ruins, recalling his European trips of earlier years. Sonntag was an Associate (1860) and Academician (1861) at the National Academy of Design, and a member of the American Watercolor Society, Artists Fund Society, and the American Art Union...
Category

19th Century Hudson River School David Johnson Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Autumn Landscape
Autumn Landscape
$48,000
H 34.5 in W 50.5 in D 4 in
Lake George by Hudson River School artist William Richardson Tyler (1825-1896)
Located in New York, NY
Hudson River School artist William Richardson Tyler's (1825-1896) "Lake George," is oil on canvas and measures 8 x 13 inches. The painting is signed at the lower center and signed an...
Category

19th Century Hudson River School David Johnson Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

"Parade" Social Realism Mid 20th Century Modern American Scene WPA Regionalism
By Gerrit Sinclair
Located in New York, NY
"Parade" Social Realism Mid 20th Century Modern American Scene WPA Regionalism Gerrit Van Sinclair (1890 – 1955) Parade 20 x 15 inches Oil on board, c. 1940s Signed lower right Fram...
Category

1940s American Realist David Johnson Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

Previously Available Items
"Byram Lake, New York" David Johnson, Hudson River School Landscape, Westchester
By David Johnson
Located in New York, NY
David Johnson Byram Lake, New York Monogrammed lower right; signed and titled on the reverse Oil on board 7 3/4 x 11 3/4 inches A landscape painter based in New York City and associ...
Category

Late 19th Century David Johnson Paintings

Materials

Oil, Board

David Johnson paintings for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic David Johnson paintings available for sale on 1stDibs. You can also browse by medium to find art by David Johnson in paint, oil paint, canvas and more. Not every interior allows for large David Johnson paintings, so small editions measuring 6 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of William Rickarby Miller, William Bradford, and John Frederick Kensett. David Johnson paintings prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $4,500 and tops out at $175,000, while the average work can sell for $55,000.