An independent development in American art was delayed. An early painter of the United States of America was Gilbert Stuart, who became famous as a portrait painter of George Washington. The most famous work is the Athenaeum Head, which is now on the 1-dollar note. Also known is the Landsdowne portrait of Washington, which is compared for cultural purposes with the Declaration of Independence and the Liberty Bell. But there was not yet a distinctive, own school in America at this time.
1820 saw the emergence of the first American school of fine arts, the Hudson River School. This was distinguished above all by directness and simplicity in the view, as well as by the accurate and detailed reproduction of American landscapes.
Thomas Cole is the founder and most important representative of this school. His most famous works include 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 a long-standing president of the American Academy of Fine Arts, played a great part in his acquaintance with the art of New York.
As a younger American artist, George Bellows is one of the main representatives of American realism in the early 20th century. The most popular motif of his work were sports demonstrations such as boxing matches.
