One of the organizers of the 1913 Armory Show, Ernest Lawson was a member of the Eight, a
group of painters in turn of the century America who rebelled against Impressionism and
academic tradition by painting  the urban areas of lower Manhattan in a more realistic style.  Of all
the members of the Eight, Lawson was the most pure landscape painter. The artist William
Merritt Chase called Lawson “America’s greatest landscape painter.”

Raised in Ontario and Kansas City, Missouri, Lawson studied at the Art Students League with
James Alden Weir and  John Twachtman.  It was Twachtman’s gestural style of Impressionism
and noted disinterest in his subject that greatly influenced Lawson, who painted many of the same
East River scenes over and over throughout his career.  Later, in 1893, Lawson went to Paris to
study at the Academie Julian, where he met the Impressionist, Alfred Sisley, who helped Lawson
confirm his “rugged” style. In 1894, at the age of 21, Lawson returned to the United States and
settled in Washington Heights, just outside of Manhattan.  For the next 15 years his subject matter
was the landscapes of Harlem, East and Hudson Rivers and the cliffs of Hoboken, New Jersey.
The paintings of this period, roughly the years between 1894 and 1913 is considered by many to
be Lawson’s best work. During the Depression years a noticeable decline in quality crept into his
work.

(Halifax, Nova Scotia, 1873 – 1939, Coral Gables, Florida)