Bayside, New Rochelle, New York
David Johnson American
Not on view
Johnson began his career in the late 1840s taking informal lessons with contemporary American landscape painters, including John Frederick Kensett and Jasper Cropsey. Although his early works reflect the influence of the so-called Hudson River School, by the 1880s, Johnson had adopted a more intimate and tonal approach to nature. Inspired by the Barbizon School in France, he favored quiet, melancholic scenes, often featuring small-scale figures contemplating the landscape, as seen here. Based on a graphite sketch completed two years prior (1980.115), this painting depicts an inlet off Long Island Sound with a large oak tree silhouetted against a cloudy sky.
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