Aurora

James M. Hart

1863 · Watercolor, graphite and white gouache on tan wove paper · The American Wing

James McDougal Hart and his brother, William, were productive and respected landscape painters who trained in Albany but built significant careers in New York City and Brooklyn. This drawing, whose title identifies the town on Lake Cayuga in upstate New York that became a popular summer resort in the 1850s, relates to several known paintings made during the Civil War years. Like many Hudson River School painters, most of whom drew in small sketchbooks, James Hart was a subtle draftsman, here tenderly shaping the foreground of sunlit trees and cottages and barely tracing the a shore of the lake.

Artist

James M. Hart

Date

1863

Medium

Watercolor, graphite and white gouache on tan wove paper

Culture

American

Department

The American Wing

Credit line

Rogers Fund, 1973