William Hart (American, 1823-1894) and his family, including younger brother James McDougal Hart and his sister Julie Hart Beers Kempson, emigrated to America in 1831 and settled in Albany. Here his career as a painter began after taking a job as an apprentice to a carriage maker. He began painting elegant, horse-drawn vehicles.  By the age of eighteen, he was producing portraits.  He left Albany after 1840 and traveled throughout the U.S., painting in New York, Virginia, and Michigan.  By 1854, he opened a studio in New York City and eventually settled in Brooklyn.  In the late 1880s he was painting his favorite motif—cows in a river landscape.  Hart is counted among the group of artist known as the Hudson River School.

Studied

Self-taught (was painting portraits by age 18

Member

Brooklyn Acad. Des. (first pres., 1865); ANA, 1855; NA, 1858; AWCS (founder; pres., 3 years).

Exhibited

NAD, 1848-94; Brooklyn AA, 1861-83; Boston Athenaeum; also in Phila., Balt., and Wash., DC.

Work

MMA; NMAA; NAD; NYHS; Albany IA; Vassar College

Resources

G & W; DAB; Clement and Hutton; Stiles, History of Kings County, II, 1145-46; CAP; Cowdrey, AA & AAU; Cowdrey, NAD; Rutledge, PA; Rutledge, MHS; Swan, BA; Washington Art. Assoc. Cat., 1857; Antiques (Aug. 1943). 85, repro.; Sweet, Hudson River School, repro.; Keene Valley: The Landscape and Its Artists, intro. and cat. no. 12; 300 Years of American Art, vol. 1, 201; Gerdts, Art Across America, vol. 1: 175; Campbell, New Hampshire Scenery, 77-79; Wright, Artists in Virginia Before 1900; Who was Who in American Art: 400 Years of Artists in America vol. 2: 1478; American Art from the National Gallery of Art.