The Hudson River School
Started: 1826
Ended: 1870
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THE ART STORY
 | American Art Definition Page |
 | Naturalism Movement Page |
 | The Barbizon School Movement Page |
 | Tonalism Movement Page |
 | Luminism Movement Page |
KEY ARTISTS
 | Thomas Cole Quick View Artist Page |
| Thomas Cole |  |
| Celebrating nature in all of its bounty, Thomas Cole is the founder of The Hudson River School of painting landscapes. Sometimes allegorical in nature, his works cast the American wilderness in a romantic light while bathing them in a 'celestial' glow. Art Story: Thomas Cole Artist Page | ||
 | Frederic Edwin Church Quick View Artist Page |
| Frederic Edwin Church | |
| Emphasizing natural light, Frederic Edwin Church painted detailed, romantic, and dramatic scenes of North and South America's wilderness. Art Story: Frederic Edwin Church Artist Page | ||
 | George Inness Quick View Further External Info  |
| George Inness | |
| Primarily a landscape painter, George Inness was known as a master of light, color, and shadow who was capable of eliciting great depth of feeling, mood, and atmosphere in his works. Inness's works were also lauded for their weaving of the physical and spiritual worlds. Further External Info | ||
 | Asher B Durand Quick View Further External Info |
| Asher B Durand | |
| Durand distinguished himself from his fellow Hudson School painters by focusing on depicting trees, rocks, and foliage in his dramatic landscapes. Durand also imbued his works with glowing light. Further External Info | ||
 | Albert Bierstadt Quick View Further External Info |
| Albert Bierstadt | |
| Joining the explorers on the Western Expansion of the United States, Albert Bierstadt was the foremost painter of America's move West. Bierstadt's paintings were not only celebrated for their luminosity, but also for giving people their first glimpses of such sights as the Rocky Mountains. Further External Info | ||
"Truly all is remarkable and a wellspring of amazement and wonder. Man is so fortunate to dwell in this American Garden of Eden."
Summary of The Hudson River School
Searching for a national style of art, the American landscape itself - large and untamed - was the primary focus of the Hudson River School painters. American expansion and Manifest Destiny imbued the untamed countryside with the symbolism of the country's promised prosperity and limitless resources. The terrain provided an alternative to European culture and history; it became a picturesque, patriotic, and inspirational theme. This loosely connected group of painters explored the nation, returning to their New York studios to paint large-scale works that thrilled audiences and celebrated the awesome power of nature and the progress of man.
Key Ideas
Beginnings:
The Hudson River School was neither a school nor art movement in the contemporary sense of the term, but a group of landscape painters who began working in the Hudson River Valley of New York State. The name for the group has been variously attributed to either the art critic Clarence Cook or the artist Homer Dodge Martin, but, in any case, it was coined as a disparaging term in the 1870s to suggest that the group's style and subject matter were passé and provincial.
Important Art and Artists of The Hudson River School | |
  | The Falls of Kaaterskill (1826)Artist: Thomas Cole Artwork description & Analysis: Kaaterskill Falls cascades through the center of the painting, while shafts of sunlight illuminate a rocky ledge, framed by red and gold autumnal trees. A single figure, a Native American, stands on top of an outcrop, profiled against the dark caverns in the cliff behind him. The effect feels spontaneous and timeless, capturing the beauty of the scene as a natural resource. Yet, trouble looms. The painting is composed as an inverted triangle: its apex sits at the break of the falls with diagonals along the rising slopes on either side to lead the viewer to the higher falls in the upper right. Beyond this, a dense row of pines stretches along the horizon, along with an anvil-shaped thundercloud that creates a sense of impending doom. Oil on canvas - The Warner Collection of American Fine and Decorative Arts, Gulf States Paper Corporation, Tuscaloosa, AL |
 | Course of Empire: The Savage State (1834)Artist: Thomas Cole Artwork description & Analysis: With ambitions to transform landscape painting into a more important and celebrated genre, Cole centered his five-painting series, Course of Empire, on an allegorical cycle of historical progress. This, the first painting of the group, depicts an unspoiled wilderness at dawn. On this site, Cole depicts the rise and fall of civilization, a narrative foreshadowed by the looming storm that casts the dense forest into shadow. This gloom speaks to the demise of the unspoiled world, an ideal state represented by the hunter with bow and arrow who pursues a deer, along with an encampment of tipis and a billowing fire at the right, but it also points to the ultimate destruction of all of man's civilizing endeavors. Oil on canvas - New York Historical Society, New York New York |
 | The Oxbow, View from Mount Holyoke, Northampton, Massachusetts, after a Thunderstorm (1836)Artist: Thomas Cole Artwork description & Analysis: Considered a masterpiece of American landscape painting from its first showing at the National Academy of Design in 1836, Cole layered geographical fact with allegorical symbolism to create a deeply meaningful landscape. Selecting a distinctive site, a bend in the Connecticut River often called "The Oxbow," Cole places the viewer in a precise location (Mount Holyoke) while alluding to the cyclical qualities of nature. The conflict between wilderness and civilization, a dominant theme in Cole's work, is portrayed in the contrast between the dense, stormy wilderness at the left and the sunlit, cultivated plains on the right. The s two worlds are bridged only by the artist's vision, represented here by Cole's minuscule self-portrait. Showing himself at work, Cole declares the artist to be a visionary, in harmony with nature. Oil on canvas - Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York New York |
More The Hudson River School Artwork and Analysis:
Content compiled and written by Rebecca Seiferle
Edited and revised, with Synopsis and Key Ideas added by Sarah Archino
" Movement Overview and Analysis". [Internet]. . TheArtStory.org
Content compiled and written by Rebecca Seiferle
Edited and revised, with Synopsis and Key Ideas added by Sarah Archino
Available from:
First published on 15 Oct 2017. Updated and modified regularly. 
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