David Johnson A landscape painter associated with the second generation of Hudson River School painters, he was noted for his ability to delineate accurately rock formations and foliage. He was influenced by the work of Hudson River painters Jasper Francis Cropsey, John Casilear, and John Frederick Kensett. He also painted an occasional still life. David Johnson was born and raised in New York City, but little else is known about his early life. He painted his first nature studies in 1849, and that year first received public acclaim for his work exhibited at the National Academy of Design and the American Art Union. In 1860, he was elected a full Academician. Primarily he painted in the Northeast, doing views of the Catskills, Adirondacks, Lake George and the White Mountains, where he worked in the early 1850s with a colony of artists around North Conway. His early landscape tend to be panoramas, rock studies, or forest interiors. In the middle of his career, Johnson adopted a more luminist style and did tranquil marine scenes, and his later work showed tonalist influence of the French Barbizon School with pastoral subjects. In the 1880s, his reputation began to diminish, and by the time he died his work was virtually unappreciated. Many years later, it was re-discovered by scholars who appreciated his great skills of naturalist documentation.

Biography with permission from AskArt.com

Newport Art ~ 29 Bowens Wharf, Newport RI 02840 ~ 401-847-5250