The Hudson River School

1
The Hudson River School

• American Art 1820-1870
• Donna M. Campbell, Washington State University
• Note Unfortunately, this slide show does not
  work well in Firefox. Use Internet Explorer if
  you want to see all the pictures and notes.

2
Background pre-1825

• Portraiture
• European influence
• American Naive style
• Flat design, spare painting (Ammi Phillips,
  1788-1865)
• Landscapes
• Often appear as detail of portraiture property
  seen through an open window indicates wealth
• Washington Allstons imaginary landscapes

3
European influence

• John Singleton Copley, Paul Revere, 1768

4
Naïve style

• Ammi Phillips, Portrait of Harriet Campbell, 1815

5
Naïve style

• Edward Hicks, The Peaceable Kingdom (1834)

6
Formal Principles

• Not merely topographic but interpretive and
  poetic views of nature
• Formal composition and attention to detail
• Depictions of harmony in nature

7
Subjects

• Home in the Wilderness
• Juncture of civilization and wilderness
  Wilderness on the doorstep
• Incursions of civilization and progress

8
Thomas Cole, The Hunters Return (1845)
9
Thomas Cole, Home in the Woods (1847)
10
Thomas Cole, Daniel Boone Sitting at the Door of
his Cabin on the Great Osage Lake, Kentucky, 1826
11
Thomas Doughty, Home on the Hudson
12
Style

• Juxtaposition of elements
• Use of panoramic views and small human figures to
  show immensity of nature and insignificance of
  human beings
• Distant or elevated perspective for the viewer
• Symbolic use of light and darkness
• Contrast of diverse elements to show the unity of
  nature

13
Thomas Cole, Scene from Last of the Mohicans
Cora Kneeling at the Feet of Tamenund (1827)
14
E. C. Coates, West Point (1855)
15
Thomas Cole, The Clove, Catskills (1827)
16
Sublime, Beautiful, Picturesque

• Longinus, On the Sublime (AD 50)
• Resulting from spirit--a spark from writer to
  reader--rather than technique
• Edmund Burke, Philosophical Inquiry into the
  Origins of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful
  (1757-1759)
• Immanuel Kant, Critique of Judgment (1790)
• Beauty is finite the sublime is infinite

17
The Beautiful

• Feminine qualities
• Harmony
• Sociability
• Pastels
• Sensual curves

18
Burke on the Sublime

• Painful idea creates a sublime passion
• Sublime concentrates the mind on a single facet
  of experience, producing a momentary suspension
  of rational activity
• Harsh, antisocial, masculine representations
  exist in the realm of obscurity and brute force

19
The Sublime

• Agreeable horror results from portrayals of
  threatening objects
• Greater aesthetic value if the pain producing the
  effect is imaginary rather than real
• Feelings of awe at sublime nature the aim of
  certain kinds of art
• Influenced Poe, the Graveyard School of poetry,
  and Gothic novels

20
Thomas Moran, The Grand Canyon of the
Yellowstone, 1872
21
Albert Bierstadt, A Storm in the Rocky Mountains
(1866)
22
Picturesque

• Intermediate category between the sublime and the
  beautiful
• Allowed the painter to organize nature into what
  Pope called a wild civility
• William Gilpin illustrated tours in the 1790s
  established the conventions

23
Characteristics of the Picturesque

• Ruggedness and asymmetry
• Irregularity of line
• Contrasts of light and shadow
• Landscape as a rundown Arcadia
• Ruined towers, fractured rocks
• Mossy banks and winding streams
• Blighted or twisted trees
• Appeal to nostalgia for preindustrial age

24
Thomas Cole, Roman Campagna (Ruins of Aqueducts
in the Campagna di Roma), 1843
25
The Hudson River School

• Thomas Cole (1801-1848)
• Asher B. Durand (1796-1886)
• Thomas Doughty (1793-1856)
• John William Casilear

26
Thomas Cole (1801-1848)

• Discovered in 1825 by
• John Trumbull,
• William Dunlap
• Asher B. Durand
• The subject of art should
• be pure and lofty . . .a moral,
• religious, or poetic effect
• must be produced on the mind.

27
Thomas Cole

• Lake withDead Trees (1825)
• The painting that made Cole famous.

28
Allegorical and realistic landscapes The Voyage
of Life (Childhood) , 1842
29
Thomas Cole, A View of the Mountain Pass Called
the Notch of the White Mountains (Crawford
Notch), 1839
30
Thomas Cole, The Ox-Bow (1836)
31
Asher B. Durand (1796-1886)

• Began as an engraver turned to painting
• Letters on Landscape Painting (1855) in The
  Crayon
• Go first to nature to learn to paint landscape.

32
Asher B. Durand, Hudson River Scene (1846)
33
Asher B. Durand, Kindred Spirits (1849)

• Thomas Cole and William Cullen Bryant
• See Bryants To Cole, the Painter, Departing for
  Europe.

34
John William Casilear, View on Lake George, 1857
35
Panoramists and Luminists

• Second Generation of Hudson River school
• Style of Hudson River painters applied to other
  regions
• Rocky Mountains
• South America

36
Practitioners

• Jasper Cropsey (1823-1900)
• Frederic E. Church (1826-1900)
• John Frederick Kensett (1816-1873)
• George Inness (1825-1894)
• Albert Bierstadt (1830-1902)

37
Jasper Cropsey (1823-1900)

• Imitator of Coles allegorical works
• Panorama of Pilgrims Progress
• Sixty large scenes unrolled to music and
  lectures.
• Panorama was eight feet high by 850 long.
• Entire presentation took about two hours.

38
Jasper Cropsey, Palisades at Sunset (Spyten
Duyvil)
39
Jasper Cropsey, Gates of the Hudson
40
Jasper Cropsey, Autumn on the Hudson (1860)
41
Frederick Edwin Church

• Thomas Coles major pupil
• Full-length showpiece landscapes
• Falls of Niagara (1857)
• Heart of the Andes (1859)
• Landscape as symbol of divine
• American continent as new Eden
• Painted from nature, not notes and sketches

42
Frederick Edwin Church, Falls of Niagara (1857)

• Compare this painting with a photograph taken
  near the same spot in 2000.

43
The Heart of the Andes (1859)
44
Frederic Edwin Church, Twilight in the Wilderness
(1860)
45
George Inness (1825-1894)

• The Lackawanna Valley (1855)
• Landscape meditation on relation of man and
  nature
• Harmonious integration of mans progress and
  landscape
• Unlike Cole A work of art does not appeal to
  the moral sense. Its aim is not to instruct and
  edify, but to awaken an emotion.

46
George Inness, The Lackawanna Valley, 1855
47
W. L. Sonntag, Afternoon on the Hudson (1855)
48
Albert Bierstadt (1830-1902)

• One of first major artists to explore the West
• The Rocky Mountains, Landers Peak (1863)
• A Storm in the Rocky Mountains (1866)
• Yosemite Valley (1875)

49
Albert Bierstadt, The Rocky Mountains, Lander's
Peak, 1863
50
Albert Bierstadt, A Storm in the Rocky Mountains
(1866)
51
Albert Bierstadt, Yosemite Valley (1875)
52
John Quidor (1801-1881)

• Not of the Hudson River school
• Created dreamlike, fanciful interpretations of
  literary scenes
• Artisan-painter uses bright, ornamental colors

53
The Return of Rip Van Winkle (c.1849)
54
Illustration from The Pioneers
55
Note on Sources

• Among the sources used
• E. P. Richardson, Painting in America
• Ellwood C. Parry, Art of Thomas Cole
• John K. Howatt, The Hudson River and Its Painters
• General knowledge about Hudson River school
• Burke, Kant, Longinus
• Pictures are mostly from Sandra Hildreths site
  (used with permission)

56
Web sites on the Hudson River School

• The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
• Brief discussion of the school from I hear
  America Singing at pbs.org
• Index of Hudson River paintings (many images)
• The Artfact site has a brief description of the
  school and links to many of the lesser-known
  painters.
• More paintings and links from artlex.com
• The Albany Institute has images of paintings by
  Cole, Durand, and others.
• Hudson River School entry from Wikipedia.
• A project by Kathleen Hogan (American Studies) at
  the University of Virginia discusses Alexis de
  Tocqueville and the Hudson River School.
• The New-York Historical Society site features an
  essay on the school and a description of the
  museums current exhibition on New York
  paintings, which runs through February 2006.