John Williamson

Hudson River School painter known for creating landscapes with astute attention to atmosphere and mood.

I. Biography

Born near Glasgow in Scotland, Williamson moved to the United States with his family in the 1830s. Settling in New York City, he attended the Graham Art School, founded in 1852 and considered the first free art school in Brooklyn where artists “gave freely of their time in conducting classes to encourage young artists.”¹

While Williamson was skilled in painting various subjects, he is most well-known for his landscapes. Like other nineteenth-century American artists based in New York City, he traveled throughout New York’s Hudson Valley, Connecticut, and New Hampshire, painting scenes of features such as Lake Mohonk along the Shawangunk Ridge and Mount Chocorua in the White Mountains. In his vivid depictions of the natural environment, Williamson emphasized mood as a means to articulate the scenery. Thus, scholar John Driscoll states that his paintings “seem allied in temperament with works by Kensett and Gifford.”² He painted works with varied viewpoints, creating some compositions with expansive vistas and others featuring more intimate perspectives of New York and New England landscapes.

In 1850, Williamson exhibited for the first time in the National Academy of Design’s Annual Exhibition. He continued to display his work at the National Academy of Design until his death in 1885. On January 5, 1861, following the success of the 1859 and 1860 exhibitions by the Brooklyn Art Social, a group of Brooklyn artist-residents, Williamson organized a meeting of artists in his Dodworth Building studio during which the Brooklyn Art Association was formed. Alongside Régis Gignoux and Seymour J. Guy, Williamson was a founding member and was elected as the organization’s first Secretary. 

In addition, over the course of his career, Williamson exhibited at the American Art Union, the Washington Art Association, and the Boston Athenaeum. His paintings are now in the collections of the Brooklyn Museum, the Hudson River Museum, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

II. Chronology

• 1826 Born in Scotland
• 1831 Moves to the United States with his family
• 1850 Exhibits at the National Academy of Design for the first time
• 1861 Initiates the formation of the Brooklyn Art Association, serving as a founding member and elected as the association’s first secretary
• Named an Associate at the National Academy of Design
• 1885 Dies on May 25 in Glenwood-on-Hudson, New York

III. Collections

• Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY
• Florence Griswold Museum, Old Lyme, CT
• Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, NY
• Maier Museum of Art at Randolph College, Lynchburg, VA
• Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
• National Academy of Design Museum, New York, NY

IV. Exhibitions

• 1850 National Academy of Design, New York, NY (also in 1851-1852, 1856-1863, 1865-1866, 1868-1874, 1876-1881, 1883, 1885)
• 1852 American Art Union, New York, NY
• 1857 Washington Art Association, Washington, D.C.
• 1860 Boston Athenaeum, Boston, MA (also in 1861-1862)
• 1861 Brooklyn Art Association, Brooklyn, NY (also in 1862-1882)

V. Memberships

• Brooklyn Art Association, Founding Member 1861, Secretary 1861
• National Academy of Design, Associate 1861

VI. Notes

1. Clark S. Marlor, A History of the Brooklyn Art Association with an Index of Exhibitions (James F. Carr, 1970), 5.
2. John Paul Driscoll, All That is Glorious Around Us (Cornell University Press, 1997), 134.

VII. Suggested Resources

• Anderson, Jeffrey W., and Hildegard Cummings. The American Artist in Connecticut: The Legacy of the Hartford Steam Boiler Collection. Florence Griswold Museum, 2002.
• Campbell, Catherine H. New Hampshire Scenery: A dictionary of nineteenth century artists of New Hampshire mountain landscapes. New Hampshire Historical Society, 1985.
• Driscoll, John Paul. All That is Glorious Around Us. Cornell University Press, 1997.
• Marlor, Clark S. A History of the Brooklyn Art Association with an Index of Exhibitions. James F. Carr, 1970.