Jasper Francis Cropsey was born in Rossville, Staten Island, and early on displayed a keen interest in drawing and architecture. While still a young teen, Cropsey was awarded diplomas from the New York Mechanic's Institute and the American Institute of the City of New York for an elaborate architectural model. He then apprenticed with architect John Trench, who encouraged Cropsey to explore his talent in drawing and painting. Cropsey attended classes at the National Academy of Design, which constituted his formal art training. In 1843, Cropsey opened his own architectural firm in New York, the same year he first exhibited at the National Academy.

Cropsey was a strong admirer of the works of Thomas Cole, and by 1845 he devoted himself entirely to painting landscapes. He first traveled to Greenwood Lake, New Jersey in 1844 to paint the lake and the surrounding landscape. It soon became his favorite painting sight. Greenwood Lake was well known as an idyllic, picturesque area of green banks and placid water and it was there that he met and fell in love with Miss Maria Cooley, whom he married in 1847. Cropsey and his wife often returned to the area to visit her family and to paint the various areas surrounding the lake. He first established a summer studio near Greenwood in 1843 and around 1866, Cropsey designed and built Aladdin, a large Gothic revival mansion and studio upon a hill in Warwick, New York, that overlooked the lake. Specializing on fall scenes, Cropsey soon earned the nickname "America's painter of Autumn." He was inclined toward precise detail, as is evident in our painting Greenwood Lake.

From 1847 to 1849, Jasper Cropsey traveled through Europe, where he visited important sights in Italy, France, and Great Britain. He returned to the United States, settled in New York, and made many sketching trips throughout upstate New York, Vermont, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire. Cropsey lived in England from 1856 to 1863, where he was an acquaintance of art aesthete and critic John Ruskin. At this time, Cropsey was appointed by Queen Victoria as a member of the American Commission of the 1862 International Exposition. Upon his return to New York, he began to paint the autumnal scenes for which he is best known today.

Cropsey enjoyed an illustrious career as one of the leading proponents of the Hudson River School. He is hailed as one of the key figures in the luminist tradition of American landscape painting, renowned for his naturalistic sunlit landscapes, and his depictions of vibrant autumn colors. He exhibited extensively at the National Academy of Design where he was elected full Academician in 1851. He also exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Brooklyn Art Association, Royal Academy of London, Boston Athenaeum, Boston Art Club, and the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876.

Cropsey's work is housed in the The White House, Washington, DC; Hermitage Museum, Russia; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA; The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, NY; The Newark Museum, Newark, NJ; Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT; High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA; Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, ME; Mead Art Museum, Amherst, MA; Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, OH; Peabody Institute, Baltimore, MD; and many other notable institutions.