A pivotal figure in the history of American landscape painting, George Inness developed the tenants of Hudson River School naturalism into a subjective and spiritual Tonalist approach that was widely influential by the end of the century. Born on a farm in Newburgh, New York, in 1825, Inness was afflicted with epilepsy. Unable to pursue a formal education, he decided at an early age to paint.

Arshile Gorky was the most influential of the American artists who translated European cubism and surrealism into an original artistic vocabulary that would become abstract expressionism.

Both as an artist and a teacher, Frank Duveneck influenced American painting and was one of the country's best known realist painters during the late 19th century. Stylistically, he was indebted to European sources, a reflection of his many years abroad. His exact observation penetrated beneath the surface and revealed the character or personality of his sitters.

In reviewing the Society of American Artists Annual Exhibition of 1901, the New York Times art critic remarked: 

Born in 1864 in Cronkbourne on the Isle of Man in the British Isles, designer Archibald Knox often returned to Manx influences in his work – to the degree that stylized Celtic motifs came to virtually define the ornamental characteristics of his entire oeuvre.

During the late 19th century, archaeological investigations and discoveries contributed to regionalist and nationalist impulses in the decorative arts, such as the so-called "Viking Revival" style, rife with S