American artist Thomas Worthington Whittredge was a leading member of the Hudson River School. He was a close friend of leading artists like Albert Bierstadt and Sanford Robinson Gifford. Although he was not well known by the public, he is widely regarded as one of the most influential artists of the American Art Movement. His works have a distinctive style that is easily recognisable.

Whittredge was a member of the National Academy of Design before the Civil War. After being rejected from service, he began a successful career in landscape painting. During his first trip to the West, he worked on raising money and designing clothes for the soldiers. He was elected to serve as president of the National Academy of Design in 1874. His paintings were often of natural light or of woodland interiors.

In the fall of 1877, Whittredge traveled to Newport, Rhode Island, where he was influenced by French painter Charles-Francois Daubigny, a forerunner of impressionism. The landscape painters Daubigny and Asher Durand were important influences on Whittredge, and his own work became an extension of theirs.

In 1878, Whittredge published his autobiography, "A Life in Pictures" in the journal of the Brooklyn Museum. It was later republished in 1969, when the author's autobiography was a bestseller. After the publication of the book, Whittredge moved to Summit, New Jersey, where he continued to paint. He died there on October 6, 1910. His paintings can be found in various museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC.