Jasper Francis Cropsey (1823-1900) is one of my favorite American painters. He was once of the so-called Hudson River School artists – nineteenth-century American landscape painters who created what’s generally considered the young nation’s first independent art movement. Cropsey is best known for his depictions of north eastern states such as New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, especially with trees in autumn foliage. However, his landscapes painted abroad are equally beautiful. While it’s not necessarily a Christmas painting, I love the serenity of the scene – the way the couple and their dog contrast so strongly against the white snow, and the tall cross drawing the eye up to the distant mountains and pale yellow sky.
