Aurora

1863
Not on view
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.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Aurora
  • Artist: James M. Hart (American (born Scotland), Kilmarnock 1828–1901 New York)
  • Date: 1863
  • Culture: American
  • Medium: Watercolor, graphite and white gouache on tan wove paper
  • Dimensions: 6 7/8 x 12 in. (17.5 x 30.5 cm)
  • Credit Line: Rogers Fund, 1973
  • Object Number: 1973.14.1
  • Curatorial Department: The American Wing

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