[5], Thomas Cole is generally acknowledged as the founder of the School. Both built on Coles principalsChurch was his pupiland depicted heroic landscapes that played on emotion and patriotism. It was promoted as a single-picture attractioni.e., set in a dark, windowlike frame draped with curtains and starkly illuminated in an otherwise darkened roomthat drew thousands of paying spectators in New York, London, and eight other American cities. Durand paid homage to Bryant in his Scene from Thanatopsis (1850), taking to heart the poem's exhortation: "Go forth under the open sky and list/ to nature's teachings.". The viewer feels the exhilaration and awe of being poised above the brink of the falls. Cole, Asher Durand, Frederic Church, Sanford Gifford, Jasper Cropsey, and other painters, along with literary figures such as William Cullen Bryant and James Fenimore Cooper, forged a self-consciously American style and landscape vision for what was still a relatively new nation. An outgrowth of the Romantic movement, the Hudson River school was the first native school of painting in the United States; it was strongly nationalistic both in its proud celebration of the natural beauty of the American landscape and in the desire of its artists to become independent of European schools of painting. Cole's influential "Essay on American Scenery" emphasized the emotive possibilities for landscape painting, writing, "American Scenery is a subject that to every American ought to be of surpassing interestit is his own land; its beauty, its magnificence, its sublimity - all are his; and how undeserving of such a birthright if he can turn towards it an unobserving eye, an unaffected heart!" The Hudson River School was Americas first true artistic fraternity. Following the early successes of his landscape paintings, Cole aimed to emulate history painters by layering his compositions with symbolic meaning. Cooper was one point of focus; as one of the most famous American novelists, many artists illustrated or painted scenes taken from his works. History of the Hudson River - Wikipedia He was also inspired by the Romantic poet Lord George Gordon Byron's Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1812-1818), even quoting a verse in the promotions for the series: There is the moral of all human tales; 'Tis but the same rehearsal of the past. As a result, their artwork was integrally connected to a sense of national discovery. Susie M. Barstow was an avid mountain climber who painted the mountain scenery of the Catskills and the White Mountains. Hudson Canyon (Texas) - Wikipedia It symbolized the nation's youth and vigorous promise. October 2009, By Susan Hodara / The Hudson River School of landscape painting was the nation's first major art movement and celebrates America's natural magnificence . The second generation of Hudson River School painters left the New York area to explore more far-flung regions of America. Aug. 30, 2012 THE landscape painters of America's first homegrown art movement, the Hudson River School, hauled easels, sketchbooks and pigment-filled pig bladders as they picked their way. Another important collection of paintings by Cole and Church can be found at the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, Connecticut. Its influence continues today: the exhibition "River Crossings: Contemporary Art Comes Home" (2015) highlighted the work of contemporary artists whose work is directly or implicitly associated with The Hudson River School by installing works like Angie Keefer's Fountain (2014) in Cole's historic home. The books and articles below constitute a bibliography of the sources used in the writing of this page. Explore the works discussed in the video below. Oil on canvas - The National Gallery of Art, Washington DC. Crossovers include Cole's first acclaimed masterwork Gelyna (View near Fort Ticonderoga) (1826), which was based on Gulian Verplanck's short story of the same title. Though the earliest references to the term Hudson River School in the 1870s were disparagingly aimed, the label has never been supplanted and fairly characterizes the artistic body, its New York headquarters, its landscape subject matter, and often literally its subject. ", "To walk with nature as a poet is the necessary condition of a perfect artist. Botanical species and native birds are depicted with scientific detail, reflecting the artist's enthusiasm for the ideas of the scientist Alexander von Humboldt who argued that biology, botany, and geology combined to create the character of a place. Lake George by John Frederick Kensett, 1869. Program and operating support are provided by The New York State Council on the Arts. Exhibition catalogue. Their objective was to convey the indescribable light and awesome beauty of the Rockies, and Bierstadt and Moran exploited every technical and imaginative faculty in their power to achieve it. From 1825 until its popularity began to decline around 1870, the group of artists associated with these heroic landscapes helped shape the way we view early America. Here, the landscape is depicted as a pastoral paradise. He produced a series of paintings that, when spotted in a bookstore window by three influential artists, gained him widespread commissions and almost instant fame. Tides are felt as far north as the federal dam at Troy, where the mean tidal range is 4.7 feet (1.4 metres). (Photo: Public domain via Wikipedia), Looking Down Yosemite Valley by Albert Bierstadt, 1865. Hudson River School indicates a large group of American painters who worked around 1850 in the United States, especially in the north of the state of New York and in New England, who focused on landscape painting. Content compiled and written by Rebecca Seiferle, Edited and revised, with Summary and Accomplishments added by Sarah Archino, Course of Empire: The Savage State (1834), The Oxbow, View from Mount Holyoke, Northampton, Massachusetts, after a Thunderstorm (1836), The Rocky Mountains, Lander's Peak (1863), The Hudson River School: The Group and Term, Bread and Cheese Club and the Sketch Club, The Second Generation and Focus on Naturalism, "Truly all is remarkable and a wellspring of amazement and wonder. In order to convey the awe-inspiring vastness and possibility of the American West (particularly significant as an alternative to the North-South divisions of the war), Bierstadt depicts an ideal landscape rather than the actual view of Lander's Peak. This interest created a natural affinity between its writers and the painters of the Hudson River School; they also shared the desire to create a uniquely American art and literature. Angela Miller, The Empire of the Eye (1996); The Oxbow, View from Mount Holyoke, Northampton, Massachusetts, after a Thunderstorm, Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park, List of paintings by Frederic Edwin Church, "The Panoramic River: the Hudson and the Thames", "The Hudson River School: Nationalism, Romanticism, and the Celebration of the American Landscape", "Thomas Cole (18011848) The Dawn of the Hudson River School". 20002023 The Metropolitan Museum of Art. [8] A prominent element of the Hudson River School was its themes of nationalism, nature, and property. The Hudson River School was not a school, nor even an organized club, but rather, a group of artists who often worked together at their 10th Street Studio in New York City. Worthington Whittredge holds a special place in the art history of Colorado because many of his paintings depict sites that are readily identifiable, despite the changes that have taken place since his western travels in the 1860s and 1870s. Rocky Mountain Landscape by Albert Bierstadt, 1870. The painting is composed as an inverted triangle: its apex sits at the break of the falls with diagonals along the rising slopes on either side to lead the viewer to the higher falls in the upper right. In another gallery of the fair, the artist mounted a tableau vivant of real Indians recalling those in the foreground of his picture. December 2009, By Kevin J. Avery / The Hudson River during the 17th-19th centuries: Exploring the Natural The subject of a heavily-promoted, single painting exhibition, accompanied by engravings and pamphlets, this work became the artist's most successful. The first review of his work appeared in the New York Evening Post on November 22, 1825. As a whole, these paintings point to the spirit of adventure, freedom, and discovery that exemplified the nation during this critical time in history. Indeed, Cole traced this view from Basil Hall's Forty Etchings Made with the Camera Lucida in North America in 1827 and 1828; Hall had criticized Americans as indifferent to their native landscape, so Cole quoted his print in a depiction of the American landscape as "a union of the picturesque, the sublime, and the magnificent. With its regular meetings in New York City, the group was a gathering place for the latest ideas about American art and culture. How the Hudson River School Became America's First Art Movement He hiked west high into the eastern Catskill Mountains of New York to paint the first landscapes of the area. Bierstadt, who was of German origin, is particularly known for his monumental paintings of the American West. Where is the Hudson river school located? Hudson River School Art Movement - History, Artists and Artwork The Newington-Cropsey Foundation, in their Gallery of Art Building, maintains a research library of Hudson River School art and painters, open to the public by reservation. Hudson River School Art Trail Hudson River Art Trail Choose Your Destination Hudson River Art Trail Hudson River | NY, NJ, CT, MA, VT, PA | Britannica (Photo: Public domain via Wikipedia), The Catskills by Asher Brown Durand, 1859. ", By Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum / It also influenced the preservation of these areas: the enormous popularity of Moran's The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone (1872) gave impetus to the movement to create Yellowstone National Park. When it eventually sold for $10,000, it was the highest price ever paid for an artwork by a living American artist at the time. In his painting, Niagara Falls (11.4), Frederic Church (1826-1900) places the viewer on the edge of the waterfalls, ready to drop down into the green-blue, clear waters of the river below, the roar of the falls seeming to fill the painting. These artists created small intimate canvases that focused on familiar areas, a contrast with the dramatic sublime of their colleagues. These associations shaped and developed American art and artistic institutions, especially when Church and Durand helped established the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York during the 1850s; the museum became the example for other collections throughout the country. This gloom speaks to the demise of the unspoiled world, an ideal state represented by the hunter with bow and arrow who pursues a deer, along with an encampment of tipis and a billowing fire at the right, but it also points to the ultimate destruction of all of man's civilizing endeavors. An outgrowth of the Romantic movement, the Hudson River school was the first native school of painting in the United States; it was strongly nationalistic both in its proud celebration of the natural beauty of the American landscape and in the desire of its artists to become independent of European schools of painting. The Hudson River School was a mid-19th century American art movement embodied by a group of landscape painters whose aesthetic vision was influenced by Romanticism. Julie Hart Beers led sketching expeditions in the Hudson Valley region before moving to a New York City art studio with her daughters. Painted to commemorate the 1848 death of Thomas Cole, and his eulogy by William Cullen Bryant, this double portrait captures their likenesses and their shared dedication to the American landscape. Using a ten-foot long canvas to create a monumental effect, Bierstadt transformed the landscape of the American west into a heroic, sublime scene. Day 3: Sites Thomas Cole Site, Kaaterskill Clove and Kaaterskill Falls. The artists were influenced by the Transcendentalist philosophy that contemplation of nature led to spiritual truth. Works by noted American Impressionists like Guy Wiggins, William Robinson or Allen Talcott hang in one light filled gallery while the next has the work of . June 10, 1988, By Grace Glueck / At the same time, industrialization was under way and rapidly transforming the country. Indeed, the artists who adopted this style did not refer to themselves as Luminists; the term originated in the 1950s. The Oxbow View from Mount Holyoke, Northampton, Massachusetts, after a Thunderstorm, commonly known as The Oxbow, is a seminal landscape painting by Thomas Cole, founder of the Hudson River School. Some of the most notable works in the Atheneum's collection are 13 landscapes by Thomas Cole and 11 by Hartford native Frederic Edwin Church. Although they drew heavily from Cole's example, Church and Bierstadt began to explore other geographical areas, particularly in Church's landscapes of South America and Bierstadt's visits to paint the American West. The young man represents a future where the view is not the pure beauty of nature but modern technology. Man is so fortunate to dwell in this American Garden of Eden. This landscape depicts an unremarkable stretch of coastline, with its white beach and green hills curving beneath a cloudless blue sky on Long Island. In fact, today there are a number of important works by these artists in the collection. Because of the inspiration exerted by his work, Cole is usually regarded as the father or founder of the school, though he himself played no special organizational or fostering role except that he was the teacher of Frederic Edwin Church (18261900). As historian Anne F. Hyde explained, the work portrayed "the West as Americans hoped it would be.". Their work established a notion of America as a new Eden, a concept that still resonates with artists, environmentalists, and landscape enthusiasts to this day. Jessica Stewart is a Contributing Writer and Digital Media Specialist for My Modern Met, as well as a curator and art historian. Cole was largely self-taught, only receiving some basic training as a painter and youthful experience as a wood engraver. Without a Landscape tour, you haven't experienced Olana. [7] Cole was from England and the brilliant autumn colours in the American landscape inspired him. The engraver, portrait, and genre painter Asher Durand was one of the three discoverers of Thomas Cole in 1825 and, in the following decade, was gradually moved to take up landscape painting himself. Hudson River school | American art movement | Britannica Artists like Thomas Hart Benton, Grant Wood, and John Steuart Curry sought to create a modern but distinctly American art. Many of the group's members contributed to the Knickerbocker Magazine (also called New-York Monthly Magazine), which was published from 1833 to 1865, circulating literary works along with essays and editorials on the fine arts. The American Wing, The Metropolitan Museum of Art / Cole founded this nation's first major art movement, now known as the Hudson River School, and advocated for the preservation of the American landscape as a . ", "The magnificent beauty of the natural world is a manifestation of the mysterious natural laws that will be forever obscured from us. Painted in the summer before his death, this landscape depicts a scene that Kensett knew well, living on Contentment Island on Long Island Sound. 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This loosely connected group of painters explored the nation, returning to their New York studios to paint large-scale works that thrilled audiences and celebrated the awesome power of nature and the progress of man. Avery, Kevin J. Itineraries Hudson River Art Trail Often its contributions focused on America's "vanishing wilderness," an early environmental theme that emphasized the American national landscape. At the same time, however, the style was intrinsically nationalistic, connected to a rising sense of American identity by conveying the unique beauty of the native landscape. Cole founded the influential art movement of the United States, now known as the Hudson River School of landscape painting. The arrival of the railroad is linked with the destruction of the natural environment, capturing the contemporary tension between progress and preservation of America's wilderness. Hudson River - Wikipedia Other painters who concentrated on depicting the landscape of the northeastern United States were Alvan Fisher, Henry Inman, and Samuel F.B. The Hudson River School painters desired a more native tradition, painting recognizably American scenes. Frederic Edwin Church is considered a member of the Hudson River school, although the exotically dramatic landscapes he painted frequently had little to do with typical American vistas. The term Hudson River School is thought to have been coined by the New York Tribune art critic Clarence Cook or by landscape painter Homer Dodge Martin. Max Oelschlaeger is a Professor of Humanities at Northern Arizona University. The American Wing, The Metropolitan Museum of Art / In the 1960s, a new generation of photographers like Ed Ruscha and Robert Adams deliberately posited their photographs of banal suburban modernity as a challenge to dramatic and heroic visions of nature. The Hudson River School was an American art movement in the mid-19th Century revolving around a group of landscape painters influenced by romanticism. Hudson River school, large group of American landscape painters of several generations who worked between about 1825 and 1870. Home to a museum today, visitors can tour Church's home and the grounds and view installations of historical and contemporary art inspired by the Hudson River School. The Hudson River School Art Trail is a project of the Thomas Cole National Historic Site, presented in partnership with Olana, the home and workplace of Frederic Church, and with the National Park Service Rivers & Trails program, with assistance from the Greene County Tourism Promotion Department. Since 2020, she is also one of the co-hosts of the My Modern Met. In the middle ground, a prosperous hacienda glimmers at the edge of a lake, although even its luxuries are dwarfed by the surrounding bounties of nature. Thomas Cole's home in the Catskills has also been maintained as a museum. The Hudson River school remained the dominant school of American landscape painting throughout most of the 19th century. Although its display in New York was considered "the most successful exhibition of works of a single American artist, ever had in this city," Cole felt that his deeper message was overshadowed by praise for the pictorial qualities of the paintings. The Hudson River School | Essay | The Metropolitan Museum of Art Later Church exhibited full-scale paintings of the Arctic regions and the Holy Land. Hudson River School paintings reflect three themes of America in the 19th century: discovery, exploration, and settlement. Coordinates: 404148N 740142W The Hudson River is a 315-mile (507 km) river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. Once Cole died in 1848, the mantel was taken up by a second generation of painters who expanded the locations of the landscapes. Alfred L. Brophy, Property and Progress: Antebellum Landscape Art and Property, McGeorge Law Review 40 (2009): 601-59. The terrain provided an alternative to European culture and history; it became a picturesque, patriotic, and inspirational theme. Church played up the sense of drama by exhibiting the painting in a dark room with a single spotlight on the work. However, the wilderness theme had earlier gained currency in American literature, especially in the Leatherstocking novels of James Fenimore Cooper, which were set in the upstate New York locales that became Coles earliest subjects, including several pictures illustrating scenes from the novels. It had previously been observed by Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano sailing for King Francis I of France in 1524, as he became the first European known to have . Named for Washington Irving's Knickerbocker's History of New York (1809), the group included James Fenimore Cooper, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Oliver Wendell Holmes, James Russell Lowell, J.K. Paulding, and William Cullen Bryant along with Irving himself. DNA Study Reveals New Insight About Balto, the Legendary Sled Dog, This Is What Antarctica Looks Like Beneath the Ice, Retired Baseball Player is Now a Full-Time Artist Specializing in Wood and Resin Sculptures, Ireland Is Offering $92,000 For People to Move to Its Remote Islands, Crossroads: A Glimpse Into the Life of Alice Pasquini, Quote Quest: Who Said It? The Hudson River School was an artistic movement that started in New York State. London: Tate, 2002. Although the wilderness is presented as a forest to be tamed, the brewing storm clouds and lightning-split trees remind the viewer of the ultimate power of nature. The Museums ten-foot-wide Heart of the Andes (09.95) is the most ambitious and acclaimed of these works. He determined to become a landscape painter after a period of itinerant portrait painting in Ohio and western Pennsylvania, and a stint in Philadelphia during which he admired and imitated the landscapes of early American specialists such as Thomas Doughty. Whether they are views of Yosemite Valley and the American West to glimpses of South America, these paintings are the testimony of a critical time in American history and the development of native art culture. Largely influenced by European Romanticism, the Hudson River School intended to convey nature's sublime beauty. In the postwar years, Hudson River School painting was both critiqued and emulated. Showmanship dominated the public display of these works, as dramatically staged, single picture exhibitions were enormously popular events. Kaaterskill Falls cascades through the center of the painting, while shafts of sunlight illuminate a rocky ledge, framed by red and gold autumnal trees. In the left, a distant, snow-capped, volcanic peak rises into the sky, becoming nearly indistinguishable from the clouds. [17], John K. Howat: American Paradise: The World of the Hudson River School, S. 311. The Hudson River School The Titan's Goblet Thomas Cole View from Mount Holyoke, Northampton, Massachusetts, after a ThunderstormThe Oxbow Thomas Cole The Beeches Asher Brown Durand In the Woods Asher Brown Durand Heart of the Andes Frederic Edwin Church Approaching Thunder Storm Martin Johnson Heade A Gorge in the Mountains (Kauterskill Clove) Kensett creates a contemplative sense of quiet and balance. Corrections? 218 Spring Street info@thomascole.org, Thomas Cole, Sunrise in the Catskills, 1826. The Hudson River School was a mid-19th-century American art movement embodied by a group of landscape painters whose aesthetic vision was influenced by Romanticism. As head of the National Academy of Design, he stressed careful observation and representation. In its prioritizing of natural order and the smallness of man's impact on the world, Cole draws from German Romantics like Caspar David Friedrich. Hudson River School - HRVI Painters who both reflected the new aesthetic standards and accommodated the vacationing class of patrons were John F. Kensett (18161872), Martin Johnson Heade (18191904), Worthington Whittredge (18201910), Sanford Robinson Gifford (18231880), Jasper Francis Cropsey (18231900), and Jervis McEntee (18281891). For some painters whose theme was untouched landscape, the northeast was less alluring than the more primitive and dramatic landscapes of the west. Frederic E. Church (1826-1900) "Frederic Church, one of the premier American landscape painters, will forever be associated with the Hudson River Valley, where he painted and made his home. View on the CatskillEarly Autumn by Thomas Cole, 183637. The Hudson River School. In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. Beyond this, a dense row of pines stretches along the horizon, along with an anvil-shaped thundercloud that creates a sense of impending doom. Formative Lessons in the Hudson River School: An Exhibition on Frederic Edwin Church and Thomas Cole, in Catskill, N.Y. Long considered a profitable, but lowly, subject for serious artists (since it involved merely copying what was seen), landscape painting received new attention in the mid-19. This desire, coupled with this particular moment in history, made for the development of the Hudson River School. Oil on canvas - New York Historical Society, New York New York, Considered a masterpiece of American landscape painting from its first showing at the National Academy of Design in 1836, Cole layered geographical fact with allegorical symbolism to create a deeply meaningful landscape. (Photo: Public domain via Metropolitan Museum of Art). In his depiction, however, Cole erased these manmade elements and included a Native American (even though the indigenous people had been driven from the area by this time) in an attempt to reverse time and preserve the original landscape for posterity. While traveling in Europe during the 1840s, Kensett had been impressed by the works of 17th century Dutch landscape artists; his later work (such as this) repeat their restrained palettes, cool colors, and rigorous composition of simple, familiar scenes. [2] They also depict the American landscape as a pastoral setting, where human beings and nature coexist peacefully. The name, applied retrospectively, refers to a similarity of intent rather than to a geographic location, though many of the older members of the group drew inspiration from the picturesque Catskill region north of New York City, through which the Hudson River flows. Influential people of the nascent New York cultural scene embraced his work enthusiastically, and Cole became the leader of an informal alliance of landscape artists now known as the Hudson River School. Other artists, including Martin Johnson Heade and Jasper Cropsey, soon followed in Cole's footsteps, hoping to repeat his success by painting the landscapes of the Adirondacks, the White Mountains, and the Catskills in upstate New York. The movement was given its name retrospectively, though theres a debate on whether it was art critic Clarence Cook or artist Homer Dodge Martin who first used the term. (Photo: Public domain via Wikipedia). Yet, when he displayed three landscape paintings (based on his outdoor sketches) at William Colman's bookshop and picture gallery in New York, they were discovered by John Trumbull, William Dunlap, and Asher B. Durand. March 30, 2007, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art Bentonville Arkansas / Today, the Hudson River School is recognized for its importance in developing a native art culture in America. The Museums six-by-ten-foot Rocky Mountains, Landers Peak (07.123) was the chief product of Bierstadts first journey to the Rockies of Wyoming with the government survey expedition of Colonel Frederick W. Lander. The artists of the Hudson River School were united by their belief that their art might lead to spiritual renewal and contribute to the formation of a uniquely American national culture. (Photo: Public domain via Wikipedia). They were inspired by European masters such as Claude Lorrain, John Constable, and J. M. W. Turner. The way that Romantic paintersparticularly in England and Germanyembraced landscape painting on a grand scale was highly influential. Searching for a national style of art, the American landscape itself - large and untamed - was the primary focus of the Hudson River School painters. In the 1870s, the Hudson River School fell out of fashion, as the influence of the Barbizon School and Impressionism dominated the art world. Their efforts were rewarded with tremendous popular acclaim, and their success encouraged other eastern landscapists to go west. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1987. [Internet]. This was the period of settlement in the American West, preservation of national parks, and establishment of green city parks. that it is of the greatest importance for a painter always to have his mind upon nature, as the star by which he is to steer to excellence in his art.
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