Remarkably, this painting tells its own story on the verso. To save your eyesight, here's what it reveals: James McDougal Hart (1828-1901) Landscape, animal, and portrait painter. A younger brother of William Hart, he was born May 10, 1828, at Kilmarnock (Scotland) and was brought to America as a child of three. Apprenticed to an Albany, N.Y. sign painter, he developed an interest in painting which led him in 1850 to go to Dusseldorf, Germany for academic training. On his return three years later, Hart lived for a time in Albany but in 1857 he settled in NYC. A frequent exhibitor at the chief galleries of NYC, Philadelphia, Boston, and Baltimore, he was elected a member of the National Academy in 1860, and later served as its vice president. He married in 1866 Marie Theresa Gorsuch, an amateur painter, and their son William Gorsuch Hart, also became an artist. He died in Brooklyn (N.Y.) on October 24, 1901. DAB; Cowdrey, NAD: Cowdrey, AA & AAU; Swan, BA; Rutledge, PA , MHS; NYBD 1857-60; Art Annual,VI; Panorama (May-June 1949) 104-105 repros.; Antigues (June 1945, 316, repro.; represented at Met. Mus. (Cat. 1922-26); Corcoran Gallery (Cat. 1947) The additional label reads "JAMES M. HART, N.A 18. WOODLAND STUDY. Two birch trees in a shady thicket by a stream. Bears two signatures. 1869"