Jervis McEntee was born in the modest Hudson River town of Rondout, New York in 1828. McEntee associated himself with the Hudson River School, and professed his distaste towards Barbizon, Tonalist, and Impressionist art. Although McEntee was an important member of the Hudson River School, influencing artists such as Sanford R. Gifford and John F. Kensett, he is one of the least examined painters in the group. McEntee is best known for his later melancholy works, which include Saturday Afternoon (Metropolitan Museum of Art) and Autumn in the Kaatskills (Cleveland Museum of Art).

Very little is known about Jervis McEntee’s childhood and early life. He received his first major opportunity when the National Academy chose to display one of his paintings in 1850. McEntee exhibited at the National Academy again in 1855 and annually for the following 35 years. The upstate New York-born painter first began studying art in 1851 under Frederic Church, who also became a lifelong friend, sponsor, and traveling partner of McEntee. In 1957, McEntee moved into the Tenth Street Studio Building, which was the heart of the New York art world at the time. The Hudson River School painter was very popular in the New York art scene and enjoyed friendships with Sanford R. Gifford, Worthington Whittredge, and Eastman Johnson. Throughout his career, McEntee attempted to stay true to nature, despite slightly altering his painting style over the years. He began with traditional Hudson River School technique, but by the end of his career, McEntee used looser brush strokes akin to the Impressionists to create his naturalistic paintings. His journals remain as one of the best accounts of what a painter’s life was like in 19^th century America.