An independent development in American art occurred with a delay. An early painter of the United States of America was Gilbert Stuart, who achieved fame as a portrait painter of George Washington. The most famous work is Athenaeum Head, which is now on the $1 bill. Further known is the Landsdowne Portrait of Washington, which is compared to the Declaration of Independence and the Liberty Bell because of its cultural significance. However, America did not have a formative school of its own at that time.

1820 saw the emergence of the first American school of fine arts, the Hudson River School. This was characterized primarily by directness and simplicity of vision, as well as accurate and detailed renderings of American landscapes.

Thomas Cole is considered the founder and most important representative of this school. Among his most famous works are the "Expulsion from the Garden of Eden" (1828) and the "Dream of Arcadia" (1838). John Trumbull, himself a painter ("Signing the Declaration of Independence", 1776) and long-time president of the American Academy of Fine Arts, played a large part in making him famous in the art world of New York.

As a younger artist of America is George Bellows, one of the main representatives of the American Realism of the early 20th century. Popular motifs of his work were sports depictions such as boxing matches.