Artist:

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

Medium:

oil on canvas

Dimensions:

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

Type:

Painting

Date:

1845

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

Topic:

Animal\dog  Search this

Landscape\forest  Search this

Landscape\New York  Search this

Figure male\full length  Search this

Landscape\river\Hudson River  Search this

Literature\Irving\Rip Van Winkle  Search this

Credit Line:

Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase

Object number:

1968.138

Restrictions & Rights:

CC0

See more items in:

Smithsonian American Art Museum Collection

Department:

Painting and Sculpture

Data Source:

Smithsonian American Art Museum

GUID:

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

EDAN-URL:

edanmdm:saam_1968.138