George Harvey

Despite the bucolic appearance of this wide Hudson Valley vista, Harvey includes evidence of industry and of man’s shaping of the landscape: barges and a steamship head down the river towards New York City and in the highly manicured garden, a man pushes a lawn mower.

Trained in the British topographical tradition of watercolor painting, Harvey utilized the same level of site-specificity and detail in his oil painting. He had returned to his native England around 1850, but visited the Hudson Valley on subsequent trips and remained familiar with the particularities of its wildlife, towns, and geography.