John Williamson (Hudson River School)

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John Williamson (1826–1885) was a Scottish-born American painter known for landscapes and still lifes, and he was a member of the Hudson River School. He moved to Brooklyn, New York, with his family at age five and lived there most of his life. His work began to appear at the National Academy of Design in 1850, and he became an associate in 1861, showing there every year until his death in 1885. He also exhibited with the American Art-Union and helped found the Brooklyn Art Association in 1861. Williamson started by painting still lifes, but switched to landscapes in 1870, creating many mountain scenes of the Northeast. Art scholar John Driscoll described his paintings as small and intimate, beautifully composed with subtle color, where mood matters more than detail, and he noted a temperament similar to Kensett and Gifford.