The Art Gallery at the Athenaeum contains one of America’s unique collections of 19th century American paintings. Each week we will feature a different work on this page. We hope educators will use this link as a tool to enrich their art curriculum. Vermonters and other citizens throughout the nation can now visit our gallery in this new, intimate, and informative way.
The text describing each painting was written by Mark D. Mitchell, Assistant Curator of Nineteenth-Century Art at the National Academy Museum. The digital images were prepared by Robert Jenks of Jenks Studio of Photography in St. Johnsbury, VT.
Please note that the St. Johnsbury Athenaeum prohibits the use of images from its collection in public exhibition, broadcast, electronic reproduction or publication in any form without prior written permission from the institution. If you would like to reproduce any of the Art Gallery images in any form, contact Irwin Gelber at 748-8291, extension 307.
James M. Hart (1828-1901), British-American
Marine and Cattle (On the North Shore), 1884
OIL ON CANVAS, 19 ½ x 28 ½ inches
Gift of Elizabeth Hills Lyman
This composition by James M. Hart illustrates how the artist's pastoral art developed during his later career. The paintings soft, tonal brushwork and expansive space almost diametrically oppose the crisp specificity of his early work. Similar to George Loring Brown's late views of Venice, Hart's composition suggests a landscape seen through the veil of memory rather than one recorded in situ. For more on Hart see James Hart-Under the Elms.
Archive of works previously highlighted:
A. Wordsworth Thompson - Waiting for the Steamboat at Menaggio |
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Sanford R. Gifford - The View from South Mountain in the Catskills |
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| James M. Hart-Marine and Cattle |