Born at Toll Cross, near Glasgow, Scotland, John Williamson emigrated to America as a child (1831). He spent most of his life in Brooklyn. In the late 19th century, he became known for his landscapes of the Hudson River Valley and Connecticut. He traveled the Hudson River to Lake George, painting in the Adirondack and Catskill Mountains, and into New England, in the Berkshire Mountains, MA, the Green Mountains, VT, the White Mountains, NH, and in Connecticut.
Williamson began exhibiting at the National Academy in 1850 and in 1861, was elected an Associate Member of the Academy. He also exhibited in Brooklyn, Washington, and Boston. In the early 1860s he completed a few still lifes featuring lilacs, morning glories, cherries, and raspberries. He died in Glenwood-on-the-Hudson in 1885.
