William Hart was a Scottish-born American painter who represented Hudson River School. The main subjects of his detailed but sentimental landscapes were country life, often with cattle, and autumn scenes.
Background
William Hart was born on March 31, 1823, in Paisley, Renfrewshire, Scotland. He was a son of James Hart and Marion Robertson.
When William was eight-year-old, the family relocated to Albany, New York.
Hart’s younger brother James McDougal and his younger sister, Julie Hart Beers followed his brother’s steps and joined Hudson River School as artists.
Education
William Hart received his artistic training at Messrs, Eaton & Gilbert, the famous coach makers from Troy, New York. He learned to paint the panels of coaches with paysages or figurative compositions.
Later, Hart also received some painting lessons from Jules Joseph Lefebvre, a French painter.
Besides, the artist developed his skills sketching from nature.
Career
About the age of seventeen, William Hart realized that he would like to become a professional painter. He started the journey to his goal working as a decorator of window shades. Soon, he took interest in portraiture and by 1840 he had a kind of a studio based in his father’s woodshed in Troy. Hart earned his living by portraying different people. The income he had was little. He tried to earn more doing landscapes and selling them at moderate prices.
Looking for more commissions, the artist had a trip around the Western States. By 1842, he settled down in Michigan where he did portraiture. He had no financial success and came home to Albany in three years.
After his return, Hart left portraiture and devoted all his time to landscapes. In 1848, he opened the studio in Albany and worked hard to develop his skills in spite of his illness. The same year, he demonstrated his first canvases at the National Academy of Design. The perseverance was awarded by the financial support from Dr. Ormsby of Albany due to which the artist had an opportunity to travel to his homeland, Scotland, where he studied landscape painting doing the open-air sketches.
In 1852, William Hart came back to Albany and a year later relocated to New York City where he established a landscape studio in the Tenth Street Studio Building. The artist began his collaboration with the National Academy of Design where he exhibited regularly. Soon, his artworks were widely acclaimed both by critics and admirers of art who noted his ability to show angled sunlight and foreground shadow.
In 1865, the Brooklyn Academy of Design was established and Hart became its first president. The following year, he co-founded the American Watercolor Society which he later chaired from 1870 to 1873. This time, the artist tried his hand as an educator and delivered his famous lecture called ‘The Field and Easel’ telling about the landscape art concept in America.
During the 1870s and 1880s, Hart successfully exhibited his canvases throughout the country, including the shows at the Brooklyn Art Association, American Watercolor Society, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia and the Boston Athenaeum. A couple of his paintings, ‘Keene Valley’ and ‘Mount Madison, N. H.’ was featured at the Centennial International Exhibition of 1876 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
In addition to painting, the artist was also known as a talented etcher. His ‘Naponock (Naponoch) Scenery, Ulster County, New York’ was listed in the catalog of the Art Department of the New England Manufacturers' and Mechanics' Institute, Boston in 1883.