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The Hudson River School

Romantic Painting

• Mid-19th century art movement• Landscape painters influenced by

Romanticism• Not actually a school—more of a group of

people with commonalities

Their Paintings

• Major themes: discovery, exploration, and settlement

• Pastoral setting where humans and nature coexist peacefully

• Realistic, detailed, and sometimes idealized pictures of nature

• Nature = manifestation of God• Use of darkened palette• Use of contrast• Personal interpretation, style, technique

The First Generation: Thomas Cole

• Founder of the Hudson River School• Inspired by the Catskill Mountains

• Falls of Kaaterskill• Landscape from Last of the Mohicans• The Course of Empire series of paintings

http://www.swarthmore.edu/Humanities/kjohnso1/pictures/cole1.jpg

Falls of Kaaterskill, 1826

http://www.swarthmore.edu/Humanities/kjohnso1/pictures/mohicanscole.jpg

Landscape from Last of the Mohicans, 1827

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5b/Cole_Thomas_The_Course_of_Empire_The_Savage_State_1836.jpg

The Course of Empire: The Savage State, 1834

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1a/Cole_Thomas_The_Consummation_The_Course_of_the_Empire_1836.jpgA

The Course of the Empire: The Consummation, 1836

The First Generation: Asher B. Durand

• One of the country’s finest engravers• Moved from engraving to painting c. 1830

• Kindred Spirits• Thanatopsis• The Beeches

http://www.artlex.com/ArtLex/h/images/hudsonriv_durand_kindredspirits_lg.jpg

Kindred Spirits, 1849

Landscape, Scene from “Thanatopsis”, 1850

http://internal.usn.org/pages/kgreenebaum/images/image006.jpg

http://www.albany.edu/~hh4500/images/durand.jpg

The Beeches, 1845

The Second Generation:Frederic Edwin Church

• Luminist (instead of sharing own reactions with viewer, looking to eliminate their presence in their work)

• Founder of Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City

• Committed to natural sciences, but concerned with including spiritual dimension in work

• Twilight in the Wilderness• Aurora Borealis• Niagara Falls

http://www.clemson.edu/caah/history/FacultyPages/PamMack/lec124/church-twilight-in-the-wilderness.jpg

Twilight in the Wilderness, 1860

http://faculty.pittstate.edu/~knichols/churchaurora3.jpg

Aurora Borealis, 1865

http://sunsite.icm.edu.pl/cjackson/c/p-church3.htm

Niagara Falls, 1857

The Second Generation:Albert Bierstadt

• Focused on westward expansion• Popular, but ripped by critics

• Among the Sierra Nevada, California• The Oregon Trail• Niagara

Among the Sierra Nevada, California, 1868

http://angellier.biblio.univ-lille3.fr/etudes_recherches/imagesduplay/Bierstadtsierranevada.jpg

The Oregon Trail, 1869

http://www.butlerart.com/pc_book/pages/albert_bierstadt_1830.htm

http://www.wfu.edu/art/ac_bierstadt.jpg

Niagara, 1869

Hudson River School:Other Second

Generation Artists

John Frederick KensettBeacon Rock, Newport Harbor, 1857

http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/MESLatCU/AH360/Large/NGA/A0000133.jpeg

http://www.nga.gov/feature/wilmerding/72/bracesrocksplash.jpg

Fitz Hugh LaneBrace’s Rock, Eastern Point, Gloucester, c. 1864