James McDougal Hart (1828-1901)

James McDougal Hart (1828-1901)

Considered to be a major figure in the Hudson River school of painters, James MacDougal Hart made a brilliant career of painting beautiful, pastoral landscapes.  His work received much acclaim; by 1860 the Cosmopolitan Art Journal commented that second to Frederic Church, Hart could obtain any price he wanted for his paintings, and that “[his] superb canvasses are daily becoming more difficult to obtain.” (March, 1860 quoted in Kornhauser, p. 436)

Contact Vose about this artist
Read more about this artist...

Born in Kilmarnock, Scotland, James MacDougal Hart immigrated to the United States with his family in 1831. The family settled in Albany, New York and in 1850 Hart was apprenticed to a coach maker. Like his older brother, William, James aspired to be an artist. William was already in Europe when, in 1850, James traveled to Germany to study in Düsseldorf and Münich. The brothers returned to New York in 1853 and by 1858 had joined the thriving art community in New York City. 

Hart’s landscapes from the 1850s to 1870s reflect the ideas of the Hudson River School in their literal translation of nature on to canvas. Like many of his painting colleagues, Hart went to the Adirondacks, the White Mountains and the Catskills to find subjects. In the latter part of his career, after a European sojourn, he began to be influenced by the Barbizon style of painting. 

Request this artist