David Johnson was a prominent member of the Hudson River School’s second generation. Endowed with a rare ability to paint both the details and the whole plan of nature, Johnson created refined, richly-detailed landscapes. Born in New York City, he studied briefly under Jasper Francis Cropsey and was closely associated with a circle of artists including John Frederick Kensett, Asher B. Durand, John William Casilear, and Benjamin Champney. He helped found the Artist Fund Society in 1859 and was elected an academician by the National Academy of Design in 1861. His works hang in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the National Gallery of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection in Madrid.