Oil on canvas, signed at lower right, presented in a period carved and gilt frame.

Sight size 19 1/2 x 33 1/2 in.; Frame dimensions 27 1/2 x 40 1/2 in.

Private Collection, New Bern, North Carolina

Born in Scotland, James McDougal Hart moved to the United States with his family at the age of two. As a teenager, Hart began his artistic training as an apprentice with a sign and banner painter in Albany, New York. He later spent three years in Germany where he enrolled at the Dusseldorf Art Academy.

Hart returned to Albany and opened a studio where he both taught and painted. He later moved to New York City, where his collector base expanded. He served three years as Vice President of the National Academy of Design and was elected a full member in 1859.

A leading figure of the second generation Hudson River School, the present painting is a very good example of his luminist leaning landscapes and tender depictions of cows.

Light surface grime; several minor paint flakes along lower edge of canvas; no evidence of retouch visible under UV light; minor flaking to frame.

$3,000 - 6,000