Hudson River School

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Hudson River School

• 19th Century American Art

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Ideas Infuences

• 1st coherent school of American art
• Shaped mythos of American landscape
• Prevalent genre of 19th century American art
• Roots in European Romanticism
• Define a distinct vision for American art
• Sense of awe for natural resources and optimism
  for potential
• Depicted a New World wilderness
• Man, small beside vastness of creation, retained
  a divine spark
• HR painters believed art to be an agent of moral
  and spiritual transformation
• Luminists experimented with effects of light on
  water and sky

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2 Great Painters
Thomas Cole (1801-1848)
Asher B. Duran (1796-1886)
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The Oxbow, 1836 Thomas Cole
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A View of Fort Putnam, 1825 Thomas Cole
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Progress (The Advance of Civilization), 1860
Asher B. Durand
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Sunday Morning, 1860 Asher B. Durand
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Kindred Spirits, Asher B. Durand

• Durand and Cole depicted together
• A broken tree stump Hudson River Schools
  symbolic reminder that life is fragile
• Humans are tiny, yet elevated by grandeur of
  landscape