Scene on the Hudson (Rip Van Winkle)

James Hamilton, Scene on the Hudson (Rip Van Winkle), 1845, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase, 1968.138
Copied James Hamilton, Scene on the Hudson (Rip Van Winkle), 1845, oil on canvas, 38 x 57 1⁄8 in. (96.6 x 145.1 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase, 1968.138
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Artwork Details

Title
Scene on the Hudson (Rip Van Winkle)
Artist
Date
1845
Location
Not on view
Dimensions
38 x 57 1⁄8 in. (96.6 x 145.1 cm)
Credit Line
Museum purchase
Mediums
Mediums Description
oil on canvas
Classifications
Subjects
  • Landscape — forest
  • Animal — dog
  • Landscape — New York
  • Figure male — full length
  • Landscape — river — Hudson River
  • Literature — Irving — Rip Van Winkle
Object Number
1968.138
Linked Open Data
https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/1968.138

Artwork Description

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