Rhinecliff is a 17th-century hamlet, census-designated place located along the Hudson River, 1 mile west of the town of Rhinebeck in northern Dutchess County, New York. It was founded in 1686 as the town of Kipsbergen by five Dutchmen, among them Hendrikus and Jacobus Kip, who moved from Kingston to live in the settlement along the eastern shore of the Hudson River. In 1849, under the influence of the Hudson River Valley school of painters, the hamlet was given the more picturesque name of Rhinecliff.