Born in a log cabin and raised on a farm near Springfield, Ohio, on the sparsely settled frontier, Worthington Whittredge was to later establish himself as one of the foremost painters of the Second Generation Hudson River School* painters. His artwork incorporates the topographical style of the Hudson River School with the use of light and color typical of the French Barbizon* School and Impressionism. His subjects include the Catskill Mountains in New York and the White Mountains in New Hampshire, in addition to the Great Plains of the American West.

Growing up as a trapper and hunter in Ohio, he had little formal art education. In 1837, at age 17, he went to Cincinnati to work with a brother-in-law, Almon Ba...