By William Hart
Located in Saratoga Springs, NY
Faintly signed lower right.
Born in Paisley, Scotland, William Hart became known for serene, bucolic, romantic landscapes with smooth finely executed brush-work. Many of his paintings had cattle and realistic figures diminished in the landscape, a motif he began in the late 1880s when he was inspired by the Lower Keene Valley in northern New York state. Hart also painted portraits, beginning this subject matter when he was age 18.
He, as well as his brother James McDougal Hart, was a second generation "Hudson River School" painter, and a sister, Julie Hart Beers was also a successful artist. George Inness and Asher Durand were major influences, although he was basically self taught.
Hart was the first president of the Brooklyn Academy of Design and also an instructor there. He was founder and three-term president of the American Watercolor Society, and his popular landscapes were exhibited regularly at the National Academy of Design and the American Art Union. He was a highly regarded teacher, and pupils included Homer Martin and Lemuel Miles.
He studied art in Scotland for three years and came to Troy, New York in 1831 as a young boy and apprenticed to Eaton and Gilbert Coachmakers where he painted decorative panels...
Category
Late 19th Century Hudson River School William Hart Landscape Paintings