Ernest Lawson
American, born Canada, 1873 - 1939Hudson River Scene, n.d.
On view
Oil on canvas
Dimensions18 x 24 in.
Museum purchase with funds donated by Gwen Truesdell in memory of her parents, Marilyn and Jim Truesdell, 2021.78
Born in Nova Scotia, Ernest Lawson eventually moved to New York, enrolling in the Arts Students League and studying under John Henry Twachtman, who introduced him to American Impressionism. In 1893, he visited France and studied with Academic painters, continuing his interest in depicting landscape. A few years later, he returned to the United States and became a member of The Eight—a group of artists who formed a loose association in 1908 in reaction to American academic tradition, wanting instead to bring art into closer touch with everyday life. Influenced by his early exposure to both French and American Impressionism, Lawson was the only landscape painter of The Eight. This painting, which depicts a scene along the Hudson River, in upstate New York, is characteristic of his style of landscapes.
