The skill in realistic portraiture, eminently shown by the American painters of the preceding century, was fully upheld by their successors of the third period. Most of the historic painters named above were well known also as portraitists, and their claims to reputation are shared with more or less success by J. W. Jarvis (1780—1851), THOMAS SULLY (1783—1872), SAMUEL WALDO (1783—1861), CHESTER HARDING (1792—1866), WILLIAM JEWETT (born 1795), EZRA AMES (flourished about 1812—1830), Charles C. Ingham (1796—1863), J. Neagle (1799—1865), Charles L. Elliott (1812—1868), JOSEPH AMES (1816—1872), T. P. Rossiter (1818—1871), G. A. Baker (1821—1880), and W. H. Furness (1827—1867). Specimens of the work of most of these artists, several of whom were of foreign parentage, will be found in the collections of the New York Historical Society, the Governor's Room in the City Hall of New York, the Pennsylvania Academy, and the Museum of Fine Arts at Boston. The most prominent among the later names is Charles Loring Elliott, who was born and educated in America, but whose work, when he is at his best, nevertheless shows the hand of a master. E. G. Malbone (1777—1807), whose only ideal work, The Hours, is in the Athenæum, at Providence, R.I., is justly celebrated for his delicate miniatures, a department in which R. M. Staigg (1817—1881) likewise excelled. As a crayon artist, famous more especially for his female heads, Seth W. Cheney (1810—1856) must be named.
The most interesting, however, because the most original, manifestation of the art instinct in this period is found in landscape. In this department also it seemed for a time as if the influence of the old Italian masters would gain the upper hand. But the influence of Düsseldorf, aided by that of England, although not through its best representatives, such as Constable, gave a different turn to the course of affairs, and in a measure freed the artists from the thraldom of an antiquated school. Although, naturally and justly enough, the landscape painters of America did not disdain to depict the scenery of foreign lands, they nevertheless showed a decided preference for the beauties of their own country, and diligently plied their brushes in the delineation of the favourite haunts of the Catskills, the Hudson, the White Mountains, Lake George, &c., and, at a later period, of the wonders of the Rocky Mountains and the valley of the Yosemite. It has become the fashion in certain circles to speak rather derisively of these painters as "the Hudson River School," a nickname supposed to imply the charge that they preferred the subject to artistic rendering and technical skill. There is no denying that there is some truth in this charge, but later experience has taught, also, that a more insinuating style is apt to lead the artists to ignore subject altogether. It is precisely the comparative unattractiveness of the methods employed which enabled these painters to create what may be called an American school, while, had they been as much absorbed in technical processes, or in the solving of problems of colour, as some of their successors, they would probably have rivalled them also in the neglect of the national element. It is worthy of note that the rise of this school of painters of nature is nearly contemporaneous with the appearance of William Cullen Bryant, whose "Thanatopsis" was first published in 1817, and who is eminently entitled to be called the poet of nature.
The first specialist in landscape of whom any record is to be found is JOSHUA SHAW (1776—1860), an Englishman, who came to America about 1817. The specimens of his work preserved in the Pennsylvania Academy show him to have been a painter of some refinement, who preferred delicate silvery tones to strength. In the same institution may also be found numerous examples by THOMAS DOUGHTY (1793—1856), of Philadelphia, who abandoned mercantile pursuits for art in 1820, and who may claim to be the first native landscape-painter. His early work is hard and dry and monotonous in colour, but nevertheless with a feeling for light. As he advanced, his colour improved somewhat. ALVAN FISHER (1792—1863), of Boston, also ranks among the pioneers in this department, but he was more active as a portrait-painter.
The greatest name, however, in the early history of landscape art in the United States is that of THOMAS COLE (1801—1848), who came over from England with his parents in 1819, but received his first training, such as it was, in America. Cole spent several years in Italy, and remained for the rest of his life under the spell of Claude, Salvator Rosa, and Poussin. He aspired to be a painter of large historic, or rather allegoric landscapes, and some of his productions in this line, as, for instance, The Course of Empire (New York Historical Society), a series of five canvases, showing the career of a nation from savage life through the splendours of power to the desolation of decay, will always secure for him a respectable place among the followers of the old school. He therefore shared, with most of his American colleagues, the fatal defect that his work contained no germ of advancement, but was content to be measured by standards which were beginning to be false, because men had outlived the time in which they were set up. Cole did not, however, confine himself to such allegoric landscapes. He was a great lover of the Catskills, and often chose his subjects there, or in the White Mountains. But in the specimens of this kind to be seen at the New York Historical Society's rooms, he shows himself curiously defective in colour, and mars the tone by undue contrasts between light and dark. He is at his best in the representation of storm effects, such as The Tornado, in the Corcoran Gallery at Washington.
Among the ablest representatives of the "Hudson River School" were J. F. Kensett (1818—1873), and Sanford R. Gifford (1823—1880). For Kensett, it may indeed be claimed that he was the best technician of his time, bolder in treatment than most of his colleagues, and with a true feeling for the poetry of colour. Gifford, who divided his allegiance about equally between America, Italy, and the Orient, loved to paint phenomenal effects of light, which often suggest the studio rather than nature. One of the principal works of this very successful and greatly esteemed artist, The Ruins of the Parthenon, is the property of the Corcoran Gallery, which also owns several pictures by Kensett.
As one of the leading lights of the little cluster of American pre-Raphaelites, we may note John W. Hill (died 1879), who painted landscapes chiefly in water-colour.