Julie Hart Beers (Pittsfield, Massachusetts 1835-1913, Birches by a Woodland Stream, 1908, Oil on board, Museum purchase, The Dorothy Johnston Towne (Class of 1923) Fund 2019.1092

The Davis Museum recently purchased this wooded landscape painting by Julie Hart Beers, a prolific member of the Hudson River School. Founded by Thomas Cole, the Hudson River School was comprised of American landscape painters who celebrated the natural beauty of America rather than a specific geographic location, though many took inspiration from the area through which the Hudson River flows. Painted towards the end of Beers’ life, Birches by a Woodland Stream captures an idyllic forest stream setting while hinting at a human presence through details like the initials carved into the birch tree on the far left.

Beers, having no documented formal artistic education, likely learned to paint from her brothers William Hart (1823-1894) and James McDougal Hart (1828-1901) and her first husband, painter Marion Beers. Starting in 1867, Beers actively exhibited across the northeast, including at the Boston Athenaeum and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. After the death of her husband in 1875, Beers supported herself and her two daughters through teaching and the sale of her paintings. Birches by a Woodland Stream is now on view in the 19th century galleries on the fourth floor of the Davis.