The Hudson River School

Asher B Durand

Albert BierstadtThomas Cole

Frederic Church

The Hudson River School of Painters, dated from the1820s, was a loosely organized group of painters who took as their subject the unique naturalness of the American continent, starting with the Hudson River region in New York, but eventually extending in

time and space all the way to California and the 1870s. The time period in which the school's artists were active was a time of

momentous social, political and economic change in American history, and the work of the Hudson River School artists

represents part of the process of national self-conceptualization taking place in those years.

Albert Bierstadt (1830–1902)The Rocky Mountains, Lander's Peak1863

Asher B DurandKindred Spirits

1849This painting depicts Thomas

Cole the famous Hudson River School painter reflecting with

poet and William Cullen Bryant.

Cole and Durand were the founders of the Hudson River School, the first American school of landscape painting. Their friend, the poet-editor William Cullen Bryant shared with them a deep attachment to nature in the New World, which he celebrated in his poetry, particularly in "Thanatopsis," perhaps the most beloved and quoted American poem of 19th-century. As editor of the New York Evening Post, Bryant helped promote the art of Cole and Durand.

Asher B Durand

The Beeches

1845

Thomas Cole The Oxbow 1836

Background:

Notice the use of atmospheric perspective. By depicting the far away mountains as hazy and gray, Cole has used the valuable

tool of atmospheric perspective which give the illusion of the far off mountain range.

Midground:

This part of the painting depicts some details that gives us visual clues that

this part of the landscape is in between the background and the foreground. Notice the attention to detail in the

leaves yet the size and amount of detail indicates that it is not as close as the

foreground objects.

Foreground:

The foreground of this picture is packed with important symbolism. Notice how the artist has

inserted himself into this landscape. This shows the scale of the vast landscape before us as well as demonstrates the imposition of

man into the uncharted wilderness.

Cole representations the struggle between wilderness and civilization. The tree to the left directs the view of the scene down the valley toward the farmland. The dramatic storm clouds over the wilderness speak of the uncontrolled power of nature, but also of the sublimity of this power.

Thomas Cole The Voyage of Life: Childhood 1842

Thomas Cole The Voyage of Life: Youth 1842

Thomas Cole The Voyage of Life: Old Age 1842

Fredric ChurchNiagara

1857

Fredric Church Twilight in the Wilderness 1860

"What I find fascinating is that everybody who looked on this magnificent scene and published a reaction seems to have a different interpretation. Some homed in on the eagle, up there on the left, and saw a symbol of American power. Some noticed where the branches cross, and saw a suggestion of Christianity. Others, noting the absence of human beings, claimed the pines as our surrogates - standing tall and strong, as the frontier expects. I must say that the pines most evident are somewhat twisted and scruffy, which gives the landscape a remarkable air of conviction; this is no ideal place, but truly what Church looked down upon. The one interpretation that I find sustainable hinges on the painting's date. In 1860, the menace in the sky would have been all too real. The Civil War would soon break out, and the blood-red tide would spread throughout the land." Sister Wendy

Fredric Church The Icebergs

1861

Niagara Falls, from the American Side1867

Fredric Church

Albert BierstadtLooking Up the Yosemite Valley

c. 1865-67

Albert Bierstadt Sunrise, Yosemite Valley

(no date)

Albert Bierstadt Among the Sierra Nevada Mountains, California1868

Albert Bierstadt Seal Rockc. 1872

Albert Bierstadt The Great Trees,

Mariposa Grove, California1876

These landscape paintings lay claim to an important place in American art history and in the American cultural consciousness.

They represent the undeniable place that nature has and continues to occupy in the American imagination.