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• Hudson River Painters
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• Women's Eco-Art
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Hudson River Painters

Overviews:

Read one or more of the following introductions: Hudson River School, 'We Are Still in Eden': Iconography of the Hudson River School, and Hudson River School Painters. See also Hudson River School. These two exhibit reviews are good introductions and have some images not available elsewhere: All that is Glorious: Paintings from the Hudson River School and American Eden: Landscape Paintings of the Hudson River School.

Thomas Cole:

The Tradition Invented: The Theory of the Sublime (Landscape Painting in America)--short introduction to Cole.

Cole biography/image.

Cole biography--linked to many images at the bottom of the page.

Thomas Cole, "The Falls of Kaaterskill" (1826).

Can you find the tiny human observer in the scene?

Large image available at Artchive.

Here is William Cullen Bryant's poetic treatment

of Catterskill Falls--in a darker romantic mood.

Thomas Cole, "View from Mt. Holyoke, Northampton,

Massachusetts, after a Thunderstorm (The Oxbow)" (1836).

Over 6 ft. wide. That's the artist himself, bottom right of

center, on the ledge. Large image available at Artchive.

Thomas Cole, "The Voyage of Life: Youth" (1842). Over 6 ft. wide.

Find out more about Cole's Allegory of Life: Youth (National Gallery of Art)--then get a better view of the painting by clicking on the thumbnail pic to enlarge it or on the "detail images" link at the bottom of that page. See all four paintings in the Allegory of Life series and/or scroll down to these four images of the Allegory of Life--with some commentary.

Thomas Cole, "American Lake Scene" (1844).

Can you see the solitary Indian contemplating the solitude?

Larger image available here.

Thomas Cole, "Hunter's Return" (1845).

Find out more about Hunter's Return.

Thomas Cole, "Scene from The Last of the Mohicans" (1827).

Cora (in white) prepares to escape the Indians by leaping off the

cliff in James Fenimore Cooper's novel The Last of the Mohicans.

See another Last of the Mohicans scene by Cole.

Asher B. Durand:

Durand biography/image.

Durand biography--linked to many images at the bottom of the page.

Asher Durand biography.

Asher B. Durand, "Kindred Spirits" (1849).

Large image available at Artchive.

The two men in the painting are Durand's good friends--the artist Thomas Cole and the poet William Cullen Bryant. Read more about their friendship and the painting: Intimate Friends: Thomas Cole, Asher B. Durand, and William Cullen Bryant. Here is a copy of Bryant's poem about Thomas Cole, plus a short biography of the writer, and here is a copy of Bryant's poem Monument Mountain about a mountain scene similar to the one shown in this painting.

Asher B. Durand, "Thanotopsis" (1849). Based on

William Cullen Bryant's poem (online copy) by the same name.

George Inness:

Inness biography--many image links at the bottom of the page.

George Inness, "Lackawanna Valley" (1856)

Larger image available here (scroll down the page and
click on the image). Commentary also included.

This painting is sometimes used to illustrate the intrusion of civilization and technology (the train and all it implies) into the natural landscape. Were the Hudson River Valley painters pro-nature or pro-progress? Here is a short but insightful answer: Art, Science and Ecological Inquiry. See also this longer, more detailed assessment: The Serpent in the New Eden: Technology and the Hudson River School.

Frederick Church:

In Search of The Promised Land--longer gallery review article about Church; features many of his paintings.

Frederick Church biography.

Church biography--linked to many images at the bottom of the page.

Frederick Church, "New England Scenery" (1851).

Large image available here. Find out more about New England Scenery.

Frederick Church,"Niagara Falls" (1857).

Nearly 8 ft. wide. Large image available here.

Read Margaret Fuller's description of visiting Niagara (from Summer on the Lakes).

Frederick Church, "In the Heart of the Andes" (1859).

About 10 ft. wide. Large image available at Artchive.

What is that little white thing towards the bottom,

left of center? Check out the enlarged detail below.

Enlarged detail from "In the Heart of the Andes"

Frederick Church, "Twilight in the Wilderness" (1859).

About 5 ft. wide. Large image available at Artchive.

Read some commentary.

Check out some Emily Dickinson sunset poems (her brother collected

Hudson River paintings.): How the old Mountains drip with Sunset. See

also Red Sea, Indeed! or Like Mighty Footlights or Whole Gulfs--of red

or Sunset that screens, reveals.

Frederick Church, "Cotopaxi" (1862).

About 7 ft. wide. Large image available at Artchive.

See commentary on this painting.

Frederick Church, "Aurora Borealis" (1865).

About 7 ft. wide. Large image available at Artchive.

Try Emily Dickinson's version: Of Bronze--and Blaze.

Frederick Church, "Rainy Season in the Tropics" (1866).

About 7 ft. wide. Large image available at Artchive.

Frederic Church, "Mount Katahdin from Millinocket Camp" (1895).

See also an 1853 version called Mt. Ktaadn and another version from 1856.

Read Thoreau's account of climbing Mt. Ktaadn (from The Maine Woods).

John Frederick Kensett:

Kensett biography--linked to many images at the bottom of the page.

Kensett biography.

John Frederick Kensett, "Near Sunset" (c. 1850).

Focus on light and atmosphere is typical of the later "luminist"

painters. See two hazy autumn-lit poems by Emily Dickinson:

As Imperceptibly as Grief and These are the days.

Martin Johnson Heade:

Heade biography.

Martin Johnson Heade, "Orchid and Hummingbird" (c. 1885).

Albert Bierstadt:

Bierstadt biography--linked to many images at the bottom of the page.

For Bierstadt's Eyes Alone--a detailed discussion of Bierstadt's art.

Albert Bierstadt, "Among the Sierra Nevada Mountains, California" (1868).

About 10 ft. wide. Note the deer gathered at the water's edge.

Large image available at Artchive.

Albert Bierstadt, "The Oregon Trail" [or "Emigrants Crossing the Plains"] (1868).

Nearly 9 ft. wide. The march of civilization toward

the golden West. Large image available at Artchive.

STUDY QUESTIONS: Which Hudson River paintings did you like best? Why? Describe some of the features you liked best. Are the images realistic or idealistic? What view of nature and of our relationship to nature is implied by these paintings? Is the primary effect eco-centric or anthropocentric? Are the artists celebrating the awesome beauty of nature, or are they projecting human needs and beliefs into the landscapes?

Hudson River Resources for Further Study:

• More Hudson River Images: If you want to see more Hudson River School paintings, try the Hudson River School--very nice collection of images; covers all the major painters. See also Luminism--many images. Here is a good outline/study guide, plus many more pictures, but a number of the links no longer work. American Art (click on "Hudson River School") has interesting commentary after a number of Hudson River Valley images.
  
  
  
• Critical Assessments: This essay on the Hudson River School takes a more critical approach to the strengths and weaknesses of this art movement. Here is an iconoclastic viewpoint: Romantic Propaganda.
  
  
  
• Painting, Civilization, and Wilderness Preservation: Nature and the American Identity --excellent introduction to the tensions between civilization and nature, between the real and the ideal. Painting and Nature Preservation. "Art and Ecology" has a two-part series that also covers how art contributed to the nature preservation movement: Signs of Expansion and Industrialization in Nineteenth-Century American Landscapes and The National Parks/Wilderness Preservation Movement. Painter Thomas Moran's contribution to preservation is covered in The West. For more on Moran, see Thomas Moran and the Spirit of Place and First Retrospective of Landscapes by Thomas Moran . . .. Here are two more detailed essays on the history of wilderness preservation and the role of transcendentalist artists and writers: History of Wilderness Preservation and The People and Philosophy Behind Our National Parks: A Biographical Curriculum Unit. Read Henry David Thoreau's early call for national parks: Chesuncook, Part 6--paragraphs 15-22 (alternate copy).
  
  
  
• Hudson River and Related Nature Writers: Read more about the writers associated with the Hudson River Valley region and artists: Literature of the Hudson River Valley. Read William Cullen Bryant's descriptive Preface to Picturesque American: Or, The Land We Live in . . . and his Hudson River poem A Scene on the Banks of the Hudson. The next essay (author and title unidentified) provides an excellent scholarly discussion of the influence of the transcendentalists on the Hudson River painters: There are two lakes . . .. Peruse for yourself Ralph Waldo Emerson's seminal transcendental essay Nature.
  
  
  
• Regional History: For those who want to study more about the region, here is a site: The Hudson: History and Habitat (click on the links at the bottom of each page). See also The Hudson River: Historical Overview.

Additional Art Resources:

• Arthurian Art--Arthur 1 and Arthur 2 and Arthur 3
• Pre-Raphaelite Art--Part A,  Part B,  Part C,  Part D,  Part E
• Hudson River School--Hudson River Painters
• Late 19th-Early 20 C. Women's Art--1893 World's Fair
• Mary Cassatt-- Mary Cassatt's Lost Mural
• Ashcan Art/Impressionists-- American Realism
• Harlem Renaissance Art-- Jazz Age Culture
• Modernist Art-- Jazz Age Culture
• Georgia O'Keeffe-- Georgia O'Keeffe
• Women's Modern and Eco-Art--Modern Women Artists
• Expressionist Art-- American Drama Art Gallery
• Remedios Varo--The Female Quest
• Cindy Sherman--Monstrous Feminine page

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