James McDougal Hart

James McDougal Hart painted pastoral American landscapes with cattle grazing by streams, under wide skies and summer trees. His work belongs to the Hudson River School, with the careful detail he learned in Germany.

He was born in Kilmarnock, Scotland, in 1828 and emigrated as a child to Albany, New York. He trained as a sign and carriage painter, then studied in Düsseldorf with Johann Wilhelm Schirmer. He was a full member of the National Academy of Design and later its vice president. His brother William Hart was also a landscape painter. He died in Brooklyn in 1901. His work is in the High Museum of Art and the Walters Art Museum.

Cattle Grazing and At the Water’s Edge show his calm, pastoral subjects.