Scene on the Hudson (Rip Van Winkle)

Object Details

Artist

James Hamilton, born near Belfast, Ireland 1819-died San Francisco, CA 1878

Gallery Label

Hamilton's painting combines several scenes from Washington Irving's short story. The hazy river valley beyond the trees evokes the Catskills, where Rip Van Winkle looked out over the Hudson River "moving on its silent but majestic course." Beneath the cavernous rock, several men enjoy a game of ninepins while Rip drinks the brew that will make him sleep for twenty years and awake to a different world. Irving wrote his stories for sophisticated urban Americans, whose fast-moving culture, fed by the nation’s industrialization, was displacing the rural society of the old Dutch Knickerbockers of the Hudson Valley.Exhibition Label, Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2006

Credit Line

Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase

1845

Object number

1968.138

Restrictions & Rights

CC0

Type

Painting

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

38 x 57 1/8 in. (96.6 x 145.1 cm)

See more items in

Smithsonian American Art Museum Collection

Department

Painting and Sculpture

Smithsonian American Art Museum

Topic

Animal\dog

Landscape\forest

Landscape\New York

Figure male\full length

Landscape\river\Hudson River

Literature\Irving\Rip Van Winkle

Record ID

saam_1968.138

Metadata Usage (text)

CC0

GUID (Link to Original Record)

http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/vk77f8f3805-239d-42e0-b3b5-65477f38527d