The Hudson River School was a mid-19th-century American art movement embodied by a group of landscape painters whose aesthetic vision was influenced by Romanticism. Early on, the paintings typically depicted the Hudson River Valley and the surrounding area, including the Catskill, Adirondack, and White Mountains. Works by second-generation artists expanded to include other locales in New England, the Maritimes, the American West, and South America.

Overview

The school of landscape painters flourished between 1825 and 1870, which was often called the ”native”, ”American”, or ”New York” school. New York City was the center of it, many members had studios in the

Tenth Street Studio Building The Tenth Street Studio Building, constructed in New York City in 1857, was the first modern facility designed solely to serve the needs of artists. It became the center of the New York art world for the remainder of the 19th century. Situated at ...

in Greenwich Village. The term Hudson River School is thought to have been coined by the ''New York Tribune'' art critic Clarence Cook or by landscape painter

Homer Dodge Martin Homer Dodge Martin (October 28, 1836 – February 12, 1897) was an American artist, particularly known for his landscape paintings. Examples of Martin's work are in many important American museums. Biography Martin was born in Albany, New York o ...

. The name appeared in print in 1879, it was initially used during the 1870s disparagingly, as the style had gone out of favor after the '' plein-air'' Barbizon School had come into vogue among American patrons and collectors. Hudson River School paintings reflect three themes of America in the 19th century: discovery, exploration, and settlement. They also depict the American landscape as a pastoral setting, where human beings and nature coexist peacefully. Hudson River School landscapes are characterized by their realistic, detailed, and sometimes idealized portrayal of nature, often juxtaposing peaceful agriculture and the remaining wilderness which was fast disappearing from the Hudson Valley just as it was coming to be appreciated for its qualities of ruggedness and sublimity. In general, Hudson River School artists believed that nature in the form of the American landscape was a reflection of God, though they varied in the depth of their religious conviction. They were inspired by European masters such as

Claude Lorrain Claude Lorrain (; born Claude Gellée , called ''le Lorrain'' in French; traditionally just Claude in English; c. 1600 – 23 November 1682) was a French painter, draughtsman and etcher of the Baroque era. He spent most of his life in It ...

John Constable John Constable (; 11 June 1776 – 31 March 1837) was an English landscape painter in the Romanticism, Romantic tradition. Born in Suffolk, he is known principally for revolutionising the genre of landscape painting with his pictures of Dedha ...

, and

J. M. W. Turner Joseph Mallord William Turner (23 April 177519 December 1851), known in his time as William Turner, was an English Romantic painter, printmaker and watercolourist. He is known for his expressive colouring, imaginative landscapes and turbulen ...

. Several painters were members of the Düsseldorf School of Painting, and they were educated by German Paul Weber.

Founder

Thomas Cole is generally acknowledged as the founder of the School. He took a steamship up the Hudson in the autumn of 1825, stopping first at West Point then at Catskill landing. He hiked west high into the eastern

Catskill Mountains The Catskill Mountains, also known as the Catskills, are a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Mountains, located in southeastern New York. As a cultural and geographic region, the Catskills are generally defined as those areas c ...

of New York to paint the first landscapes of the area. The first review of his work appeared in the '' New York Evening Post'' on November 22, 1825. Cole was from England and the brilliant autumn colours in the American landscape inspired him. His close friend Asher Brown Durand became a prominent figure in the school. A prominent element of the Hudson River School was its themes of nationalism, nature, and property. Adherents of the movement also tended to be suspicious of the economic and technological development of the age.

Second generation

Frederic Edwin Church - Niagara Falls - WGA04867

The ''second generation'' of Hudson River School artists emerged after Cole's premature death in 1848; its members included Cole's prize pupil

Frederic Edwin Church Frederic Edwin Church (May 4, 1826 – April 7, 1900) was an American landscape painter born in Hartford, Connecticut. He was a central figure in the Hudson River School of American landscape painters, best known for painting large landscapes, ...

, John Frederick Kensett, and Sanford Robinson Gifford. Works by artists of this second generation are often described as examples of Luminism. Kensett, Gifford, and Church were also among the founders of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Most of the finest works of the second generation were painted between 1855 and 1875. Artists such as Frederic Edwin Church and Albert Bierstadt were celebrities then. They were both influenced by the Düsseldorf school of painting, and Bierstadt had studied in that city for several years. Thousands of people would pay 25 cents per person to view paintings such as ''

Niagara Niagara may refer to: Geography Niagara Falls and nearby places In both the United States and Canada *Niagara Falls, the famous waterfalls in the Niagara River *Niagara River, part of the U.S.–Canada border *Niagara Escarpment, the cliff ov ...

'' and ''

The Icebergs ''The Icebergs'' is an 1861 oil painting by the American landscape artist Frederic Edwin Church. It was inspired by his 1859 voyage to the North Atlantic around Newfoundland and Labrador. Considered one of Church's "Great Pictures"—measuring ...

''. The epic size of these landscapes was unexampled in earlier American painting and reminded Americans of the vast, untamed, and magnificent wilderness areas in their country. This was the period of settlement in the American West, preservation of national parks, and establishment of green city parks.

Female artists

Several women were associated with the Hudson River School.

Susie M. Barstow Susie M. Barstow (May 9, 1836 – June 12, 1923) was an American painter associated with the Hudson River School who was known for her luminous landscapes. Biography Susie M. Barstow was the daughter of old-time New York City tea merchant Samue ...

was an avid mountain climber who painted the mountain scenery of the Catskills and the White Mountains. Eliza Pratt Greatorex was an Irish-born painter who was the second woman elected to the National Academy of Design. Julie Hart Beers led sketching expeditions in the Hudson Valley region before moving to a New York City art studio with her daughters. Harriet Cany Peale studied with Rembrandt Peale and

Mary Blood Mellen Mary Blood Mellen (13 May 1819–11 February 1886) was an American painter who was one of several individuals (including William Bradford, Benjamin Champney (1817–1907), and George Merchant Jr.) who studied under Fitz Henry Lane (also ca ...

was a student and collaborator with Fitz Henry Lane.

Legacy

Hudson River School art has had minor periods of a resurgence in popularity. The school gained interest after World War I, likely due to nationalist attitudes. Interest declined until the 1960s, and the regrowth of the Hudson Valley has spurred further interest in the movement. Historic house museums and other sites dedicated to the Hudson River School include Olana State Historic Site in Hudson, New York, the Thomas Cole National Historic Site in the town of Catskill, the

Newington-Cropsey Foundation The Newington-Cropsey Foundation (NCF) is a nonprofit private organization based in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York. The foundation's aim is to maintain and preserve the works of Jasper Cropsey and the art movement he was a part of, the Hudson River ...

's historic house museum, art gallery, and research library in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, and the John D. Barrow Art Gallery in the village of Skaneateles, New York.

Collections

Public collections

One of the largest collections of paintings by artists of the Hudson River School is at the Wadsworth Atheneum in

Hartford, Connecticut Hartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It was the seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960. It is the core city in the Greater Hartford metropolitan area. Census estimates since the ...

. Some of the most notable works in the Atheneum's collection are 13 landscapes by Thomas Cole and 11 by Hartford native Frederic Edwin Church. They were personal friends of the museum's founder, Daniel Wadsworth.

Other collections

* Albany Institute of History & Art in Albany, New York * Arnot Art Museum in Elmira, New York * Berkshire Museum in Pittsfield, Massachusetts *

Brooklyn Museum The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 1.5 million objects. Located near the Prospect Heights, Crown H ...

in Brooklyn, New York * Corcoran Gallery of Art, in Washington, DC *

Crystal Bridges Museum Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art is a museum of American art in Bentonville, Arkansas. The museum, founded by Alice Walton and designed by Moshe Safdie, officially opened on 11 November 2011. It offers free public admission. Overview ...

, in Bentonville, Arkansas * Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens, in Jacksonville, Florida * Detroit Institute of Arts in Detroit, Michigan * Fenimore Art Museum in Cooperstown, New York *

Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, commonly known as The Loeb, is a teaching museum, major art repository, and exhibition space on the campus of Vassar College, in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. It was founded in 1864 as the Vassar Colleg ...

, in Poughkeepsie, New York *

Fruitlands Museum Fruitlands Museum in Harvard, Massachusetts, is a museum about multiple visions of America on the site of the short-lived utopian community, Fruitlands (transcendental center), Fruitlands. The museum includes the Fruitlands farmhouse (a National ...

in Harvard, Massachusetts * Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa, Oklahoma * Haggin Museum in Stockton, California * Hudson River Museum in Yonkers, New York * Hunter Museum of American Art in Chattanooga, Tennessee * Louvre Museum in Paris, France * Mabee-Gerrer Museum of Art in Shawnee, Oklahoma * Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park in Woodstock, Vermont * Metropolitan Museum of Art, in Manhattan, New York * Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute, in Utica New York *

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 paintings and more than 450,000 works ...

, in Boston, Massachusetts * Museum of White Mountain Art in Jackson, New Hampshire *

National Gallery of Art The National Gallery of Art, and its attached Sculpture Garden, is a national art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of char ...

in Washington, DC * Newark Museum in Newark, New Jersey *

in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York * New-York Historical Society, in Manhattan, New York * Olana State Historic Site, in Hudson, New York * St. Johnsbury Athenaeum, in St. Johnsbury, Vermont * Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, in Madrid, Spain
The Heckscher Museum of Art
in Huntington, New York * Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, in Richmond, Virginia * Worcester Art Museum, in Worcester, Massachusetts * Wadsworth Atheneum, in Hartford, Connecticut The

, in their Gallery of Art Building, maintains a research library of Hudson River School art and painters, open to the public by reservation.

Notable artists

* Albert Bierstadt (1830–1902) *

William Mason Brown William Mason Brown (c. 1828–1898) was an American artist. Early life Born in Troy, New York. Education Brown began his career as a portraitist, studying under Abel Buell Moore, Troy’s preferred portraitist. Career Brown painted portraits, l ...

(1828–1898) *

John William Casilear John William Casilear (June 25, 1811 – August 17, 1893) was an American landscape artist belonging to the Hudson River School. Casilear was born in New York City. His first professional training was under prominent New York engraver Peter Mav ...

(1811–1893) *

(1826–1900) * Thomas Cole (1801–1848) * Samuel Colman (1832–1920) * Jasper Francis Cropsey (1823–1900) * Thomas Doughty (1793–1856)Encyclopedia Britannica
/ref> * Robert Duncanson (1821–1872) * Asher Brown Durand (1796–1886) * Sanford Robinson Gifford (1823–1880) *

James McDougal Hart James McDougal Hart (May 10, 1828 – October 24, 1901), was a Scottish-born American landscape and cattle painter of the Hudson River School. Family and education Hart was born in Kilmarnock, Scotland, and was taken to America with hi ...

(1828–1901) * William Hart (1823–1894) * William Stanley Haseltine (1835–1900) *

Martin Johnson Heade Martin Johnson Heade (August 11, 1819 – September 4, 1904) was an American painter known for his salt marsh landscapes, seascapes, and depictions of tropical birds (such as hummingbirds), as well as lotus blossoms and other still lifes. His pai ...

(1819–1904) *

Hermann Ottomar Herzog Hermann Ottomar Herzog (15 November 1831Zivilregister Bremen page 592 No. 1200/1832 – 6 February 1932) was a prominent nineteenth- and early twentieth-century European and American artist, primarily known for his landscapes. He is assoc ...

(1832–1932) * Thomas Hill (1829–1908) * David Johnson (1827–1908) * John Frederick Kensett (1816–1872) * Jervis McEntee (1828–1891) * Thomas Moran (1837–1926) * Robert Walter Weir (1803–1889) * Worthington Whittredge (1820–1910) *

Francis Augustus Silva Francis Augustus Silva (October 4, 1835 – March 31, 1886) was an American Luminist painter of the Hudson River School. His specialty was marine scenes, particularly of the Atlantic coast, a genre in which he masterfully captured the sub ...

(1835–1886)

References

Notes Sources * * * Ferber, Linda S. ''The Hudson River School: Nature and the American Vision''. New York Historical Society, 2009. * Sullivan, Mark W. ''The Hudson River School: An Annotated Bibliography.'' Metuchen, NJ; Scarecrow Press, 1991. * Wilmerding, John. ''American Light: The Luminist Movement, 1850–1875: Paintings, Drawings, Photographs.'' National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1980. . .

External links

The Hudson River School
American Art Gallery

The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Wadsworth Atheneum's Hudson River School Collection
{{Authority control Luminism (American art style) American art movements Landscape art by school Cultural history of the United States Hudson River