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American Scenery: Different Views in Hudson River School Painting
August 7 - December 31, 2005
American Scenery: Different Views in Hudson River School Painting organized by the Westmoreland Museum of American Art (WMAA) will open on August 7 and run through December 31, 2005. This exhibition features landscape paintings grouped by pairs or arranged in series so the viewer can see how different generations of Hudson River School artists interpreted the majestic American landscape. The Hudson River School is considered by many to be the first truly American school of painting. The three generations of artists (71 in all) represented in the exhibition of 114 paintings are assembled from one private collection.
Flourishing between 1825 and 1875, but extending into the late 19th century, the Hudson River School involved three generations of painters and was not geographically confined to the Hudson River region. It was a movement that celebrated the vast natural resources of the American landscape just as it watched the onslaught of industrialization threaten that landscape while asserting the United States as a world power. The artists of the school were united by certain shared principles including a belief in natural religion, the magnificence of nature, and, specifically, the significance of the fresh, untamed American scenery reflecting our national character, as opposed to the civilized European landscape. They had a seemingly unlimited appetite for direct observation of the landscape around them, and were inspired by their constant awareness that in nature things change continually and nothing is ever stationary.
The Hudson River School included Thomas Cole, Jasper Francis Cropsey, Sanford Robinson Gifford, Asher B. Durand, Frederic Edwin Church, John Frederick Kensett, and John William Casilear, just a few of the major painters who produced paintings intended as pairs, series, and groups.
Published by Columbia University Press, the accompanying exhibition catalog titled Different Views in Hudson River School Painting includes full-color reproductions of all 114 paintings in the exhibition, an essay, a complete checklist, and descriptions of each pairing and grouping of paintings. The catalog's essay traces the tradition of pairs and series of paintings beginning with the medieval books of hours, through to Nicholas Poussin and Claude Lorraine whose paintings were known to and influenced the early painters of the Hudson River School. The school's founder, Thomas Cole painted in series in order to communicate his narrative themes, whose complicated imagery could not be accommodated in a single painting. Later artists of the school used other, more subtle methods of imbuing their landscapes with meaning, including using a set iconography that was known both to the artists and to their audience and included natural cycles such as seasons and times of day, light effects caused by weather, and the positioning of trees and animals within the landscape. The catalog will be available mid September at the WMAA Museum Shop or http://www.wmuseumaa.org. An early review of O'Toole's book describes it as "a study of significant importance that enriches our comprehension of a nineteenth century mindset."
Times of Day:
(above: Herman Fuechsel (1833-1915), Cows in the Hudson River, c.1875, oil on canvas, 10 x 20 inches)
(below: Joseph Antonio Hekking, Cows Watering in a Summer Landscape, c. 1870, oil on canvas, 20 x 36 inches)
Weather Conditions and Mood:
(above: Arthur Parton (1842-1914), On the Hudson, 1879, oil on canvas, 12 1/4 x 20 inches)
(below: Alexander Lawrie (1842-1914), Cold Springs on Hudson, 1871, oil on canvas, 10 1/4 x 20 1/4 inches)
Gallery wall panel introductory text
Tour
American Scenery will also travel to the following venues: Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, University of New York, New Paltz, NY (February 4 May 27, 2006); Palmer Museum of Art, The Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA (October 7 December 16, 2007) and others.
Programs for the exhibition
A variety of programs are offered in conjunction with the current exhibition. The public is invited to a free preview reception on Saturday, August 6 from 6:00 8:00 p.m. On Sunday, August 7, Judith Hansen O'Toole, WMAA Director/CEO, curator of the exhibition and author of the accompanying catalog, will lead a tour of the exhibition at 1:00 p.m. followed by a public reception featuring children's activities from 2:00 4:00 p.m. According to O'Toole, "American Scenery's themes of changing seasons, times of day, and weather conditions, inspired artists to create different views. The artists of the Hudson River School shared an interest in portraying different views of the untamed American landscape as reflection of our unique national character, and as a way of communicating universal truths and philosophical concepts."
Other programs:
Editor's note: RL readers may also enjoy
these earlier articles and essays:
this VHS video:
Hudson River and its Painters, The is a 57 minute
1988 video from the Metropolitan Museum of Art Series released by
Home Vision Entertainment. The mid-nineteenth century saw the growth of
America's first native school of landscape painters, artists inspired by
the compelling beauty of the Hudson River Valley, who portrayed this and
other romantic wilderness areas with an almost mystical reverence. This
57 minute video explores the life and work of the major artists of what
came to be known as the Hudson River School -- Thomas Cole, Asher Durand,
Frederic Church, Albert Bierstadt, John Kensett, Jasper Cropsey, Worthington
Whittredge, Sanford Gifford, and George Inness. Although its members traveled
widely, the growth and development of the school were centered around New
York City, and its success reflected the ambitions of the youthful American
nation. It presents more than 200 paintings, prints and photographs of the
period and juxtaposes them with dramatic location photography of the Hudson
River area. The Hudson Company in association with The Metropolitan Museum
of Art.
"The film highlights W. M. Chase's years at Shinnecock, on Long Island, NY, where in 1891 the artist established the first important outdoor summer school of art in America. Images of Chase's paintings and archival photographs--many of the artist's studios--are combined with footage of the hills and beaches at Shinnecock and of Chase's house and studio as they are today." (text courtesy Georgia Museum of Art)
online video:
The WGBH/Boston
Forum Network includes a number of videos on Art
and Architecture. Partners include a number of Boston-area museums,
colleges, universities and other cultural organizations. Boston
Athenaeum partnered with the Forum Network for a series of lectures
on American art by David Dearinger, who is Susan Morse Hilles Curator of
Paintings and Sculpture at the Boston Athenaeum. An art historian and curator,
he received his Ph.D. from the Graduate Center of the City University of
New York, with a specialty in nineteenth-century American art. Titles include
Hudson
River School of American Landscape Painting, a general introduction
to the famous Hudson River School of American landscape painting. [March
29, 2005]
WNET's Metro
Arts Thirteen produced Hudson
River School which begins with "The first coherent school of American
art, the Hudson River painters, helped to shape the mythos of the American
landscape. Beginning with the works of Thomas Cole (1801-1848) and Asher
B. Durand (1796-1886) and evolving into the Luminist and late Romantic schools,
landscape painting was the prevalent genre of 19th century American art."
A video features Thomas Hampson on Duran's "Kindred Spirits."
Also see:
rev. 11/9/06
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