A leading landscape and genre painter in the United States and Europe, George Henry Boughton did scenes of England, Brittany and The Netherlands. He was also an illustrator of books by Washington Irving including “Rip Van Winkle” and “History of New York” and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Scarlet Letter.”
Many of his works were small size, and he is primarily known for paintings that expressed sentimentality in soft, muted tones. Many of his subjects were rural, rustic figures.
He spent only a small portion of his life in the United States, but it was a formative period. Born near Norwich, England, in 1834, he was brought to America in 1839 by his parents when he was three years old and was raised in Albany, New York.
Boughton taught himself to paint and was so good at it that, by the time he was 19 years old, he had earned enough through purchases by the American Art Union, an art-promoting organizing, to make a six-month sketching tour in England. His success continued after his return and he moved to New York City in 1858 and to Paris, France, in 1861. The following year, Boughton moved to London, England, opened a studio and remained there until his death in 1905.
Boughton exhibited many of his paintings in the United States, where he had numerous patrons. Many of his works have a distinct American colonial theme.
Source:
Michael David Zellman, 300 Years of American Art