Hudson River School

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Hudson River School

• Thomas Cole said if nature were untouched by the
  hand of man--as was much of the primeval American
  landscape in the early 19th century--then man
  could become more easily acquainted with the hand
  of God.
• Visual representations of Thoreau, Whitman and
  Emerson
• Separated themselves from European counterparts
  by concentrating on the landscape and scenes of
  Hudson River Valley and upstate NY

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Thomas Cole

• Born in England in 1801
• Moved to America in 1818
• Bio film http//www.thomascole.org/

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Scene from The Last of the Mohicans 1826
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More info

• First purely American movement in art
• Hudson River painters believed art to be an
  agent of moral and spiritual transformation
• Influences Romanticism, European painters such
  as Constable or Turner.HR artists studied with
  their European counterparts, but created a
  distinctly American style
• Sketch work from nature, in the
  environmentfinished works in studio
• Artists felt that they were the guardians of the
  American Landscape

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Characteristics

• Works often held symbolic broken tree stump
  which was likened to a Memento Mori...life is
  temporary.nature and the soul are eternal
• Atmospheric lighting
• Grand vistassense of awe in the natural world

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The Course of Empire

• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vyvhy6iybvXI
• Series of paintings inspired by travels to
  EuropeFallen empires with new ones surrounding
• historical associations, moralistic narrative,
  and what the artist felt were universal truths
  about mankind
• A series of pictures might be painted that
  should illustrate the History of a natural scene,
  as well as be an Epitome of Manshowing the
  natural changes of Landscape those effected by
  man in his progress from Barbarism to
  Civilization, to Luxury, the Vicious state or
  state of destruction and to the state of Ruin
  Desolation.
• The philosophy of my subject is drawn from
  the history of the past, wherein we see
  how nations have risen from the Savage state to
  that of Power Glory then fallen become
  extinct...
• http//www.explorethomascole.org/tour/items/69/ser
  ies/

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Thomas Moran

• Born 1837 in England
• Parents were textile weavers
• Mechanized looms came with Industrial age and
  parents lost jobs
• Relocated to outside of Philly, PA
• Moran worked as apprentice to wood engravers firm
• Traveled to London to study marine/landscape
  works of JMW Turner
• Upon return, sold lithographs of the Great Lakes
  region
• Traveled West to Yellowstone as part of a group
  documenting that natural area (a geologist,
  photographer William Henry Jackson and Moran)
• Their work contributed to the establishment of
  Yellowstone as a National Park
• Jackson and Moran would collaborate on another
  endeavorWestern territory
• Two famous paintings resulted Grand Canyon of
  Yellowstone and The Chasm of Colorado both
  purchased for the asounding amount of 10,000
  each by congress to hang in our capital

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Grand Canyon of the YellowstoneThomas Moran
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Chasm of Colorado
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A Miracle Of NatureThomas Moran
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Forest SceneThomas Moran
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Cliff Dwellers Painted byThomas Moran
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critique
Asher B. Durand, "Kindred Spirits" (1849).
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Resources

• http//www.pbs.org/wnet/ihas/icon/hudson.html
• http//www.thomas-cole.info/
• http//www.hudson-river-school.org/Cliff-Dwellers.
  html
• http//www.thomas-moran.org/biography.html