Born in Kilmarnock, Scotland, James Hart was a leading figure of the second generation Hudson River School painters and was known for idyllic landscapes, especially with cows. His family emigrated to Albany, New York in 1830 when he was age two, and Hart, at age 15, apprenticed to a sign and banner painter in Albany. Later he switched to portrait painting.

At age 22, he went to Germany and enrolled in the Dusseldorf Art Academy for three years and returned to Albany where he opened a studio and taught and painted until 1857 when he established a studio in New York City. There members of the newly rich, post-Civil War society were delighted with his serene, rural landscapes. It was a time when New York "sw...