Hudson River School

BlogAdmin on 27th May 2022

Hudson River School was the first native school of painting in the United States. It was an outgrowth of the Romantic movement and was strongly nationalistic in its proud celebration of the natural beauty of the American landscape. It was also a medium of expression of the Artists’ desire to become independent of European schools of painting. The term Hudson River School refers to American landscape painting created between 1825 and roughly 1875. It is a group of artists who lived and painted in the Hudson River valley of New York. They knew one another, went on sketching trips together and exhibited their paintings side by side at exhibitions and galleries.

Thomas Cole, the founder member

The Hudson River School was America’s first true artistic fraternity. Its name was coined to identify a group of New York City-based landscape painters under the influence of Thomas Cole (1801-1848). Because of Cole’s contribution by way of his paintings, he is regarded as the father or founder of the School. However, Cole’s role in the identity and existence of The Hudson River School was more inspirational than organisational or of a fostering nature.

Thomas Cole (1801-1848)

Early Days

Thomas Cole was born in 1801 at Bolton, Lancashire in Northwestern England. When he became 17 years of age, he migrated to the United States with his family. Before moving to Steubenville, Ohio, where his father had established a wallpaper manufacturing business, Thomas Cole worked as a wood engraver in Philadelphia. As he was not happy with his occupation in his father’s business, Cole chose painting as his career and received basic training and instructions from an itinerant portraitist.

Cole’s Painting Skills

Cole nurtured the type of conviction usually reserved for religious beliefs. This turned Cole into a painstaking draftsman and a tireless hiker. America’s most respected literary figure had pronounced in 1820 that ‘he who would study nature in its wilderness and variety must plunge into the forest, must explore the glen, must stem the torrent and dare the precipice”. In 1923, Cole began to make studies from nature. “Every morning before it was light, he was on his way to the beautiful Monongahela, with his papers and pencils. He made small but accurate studies of single objects; a tree, a leafless bough, and as the season advanced, he studied the foliage that clothes the naked trees”.

He had found the right path. What is extraordinary was that he had found the true mode of pursuing it. Cole could not have agreed more. Thereafter, he began painting portraits, genre scenes and landscapes and travelled to Ohio and Pennsylvania in search of subjects for honing his painting skills. Though his family had relocated to Pittsburg, Cole moved to Philadelphia as he was inspired by works of some of the famous paintings that he saw in the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Cole admired the landscape of Thomas Birch and Thomas Daughty. These two artists were far more proficient than he at that point in time. Code became increasingly accomplished in his craftsmanship. He was full of ideas about the peculiar qualities of the American wilderness. He moved to New York City in spring 1825 and travelled up along the Hudson River to the easter Catskill Mountains.

The landscape around Hudson River

More than ever, Cole’s ambitions seemed attuned to the rising tides of American cultural Nationalism. Code stayed in the vicinity of Catskill Mountain House hotel. During his stay near and along the Hudson River, he made three landscapes based on the sketches of the river and the hills along its basin. While a city bookseller agreed to display in his window, Colonel John Trumbell, a renewed painter of the Americal Revolution, purchased one of his paintings instantly. He also recommended to other two of his colleagues, William Dunlap and Asher B Durand to buy Cole’s paintings.

Recognition among Cultural Community

Trumbull appreciated Cole’s perception of wilderness in the Amerian landscape which most other landscape artists had ignored. He placed the speciality of Cole’s paintings before several art patrons who began buying Cole’s work. Trumbull also portrayed Thomas Cole‘s talent as a new discovery in the field of painting. This also helped Cole receive necessary publicity among New York’s cultural community. Thereafter, Cole became one of the founding members of the National Academy of Design at the young age of 21 years, in 1825.

Cole’s Italian Tour

Cole had developed a desire to take his painting to a higher level by including biblical and literary subjects in his landscapes. He was intending to widen the scope of his paintings by travelling more and adding newer subjects. By 1829, Thomas Cole had also earned a name in the field of art and had sufficient financial success that would enable him to take a tour of Europe, especially Italy in 1829. He stayed in Italy from 1831to 1832 and visited several cities such as Florance, Rome and Naples. Cole was a devout Protestant and his belief manifested itself in his early canvasses.

Famous Paintings

During this period, Cole, inspired by the region around Rome, painted many Italian subjects, such as View Near Tivoli (Morning), (1832), Titan’s Goblet (1833). His most ambitious historical landscape series The Course of Empire (1833-1836), is a series of five pictures dramatizing the rise and fall of an ancient classical state. Thomas Cole‘s other famous paintings include View From Mount Holyoke, Northampton, Massachusetts, After a Thunderstorm- The Oxbow, View on the Catskill-Early Autumn (1836-37).

Attraction to Catskill

After his return from Italy and marriage to Maria Bartow, he stayed in the village of Catskill near his beloved Catskill mountains. Cole’s paintings made during this period started showing manifestations of his religious piety. His four-part series The Voyage of Life (1840) depicted the journey of a river as a symbolic representation of the human passage through life. He continued to produce American and foreign landscapes and the famous Mountain Ford (1846) is one among them.

“Niagara Falls”

Thomas Cole composed the romanticised and autumnal scene of Niagara Falls after visiting the falls in 1929. He portrayed the grandeur of Niagara Falls as a part of the American landscape. At the same time, Thomas Cole was much concerned about the impact of industrialisation and colonisation on the environment. Cole gave expression to his concern for the environment by omitting the factories and hotels that had come up in the area in the early 19th century. His painting also erased the human devastation wrought by colonialism and conquest in the region. Cole has painted two native American figures at the centre.

Inspiration to Young Generation Painters

Cole invited young Frederic Church to his Catskill studio in 1844 where Church studied with him until 1846 and went on to become one of the renowned painters among the generation to follow Cole. Cole started work on his most ambitious series, The Cross and the World in 1846. But in February 1948, he contracted pleurisy and died before completing the painting. Asher Brown Durand was another painter who travelled and sketched with Cole in the 1830s. Durand became a famous landscape painter and ascended to the presidency of the National Academy of Design. He followed the example set by Thomas Cole and foster a few other young-generation landscape artists.

Frederic Edwin Church (1826-1900)

His Early Life

Frederic Edwin Church was a renowned American landscape painter. He was born on May 4, 1826, in Hartford, Connecticut. Church was the son of Joseph Church who was a successful businessman as a silversmith and jeweller. He was a director of several financial firms. (His mother’s brother owned an iron foundry that constructed the US Capital Dome. The family’s wealth made it possible for Frederic to pursue his interest in art from an early age.

Thomas Cole’s Pupil

When he was 18 years old, Frederic became a student of Thomas Cole in his studio at Catskill, New York. Frederic studied with him for two years and by this time, his talent became all the more evident. During his stay with Cole, Frederic visited places like East Hampton, Long Island, Catskill Mountain House, The Berkshires, New Haven and Vermont and other scenic places around New England and New York. He made sketches and painted landscapes and his first recorded sale of a painting was in 1846 for $130. It was a pastoral depicting Hooker’s Journey in 1636. He was elected as the youngest Associate of the National Academy of Design. He became a full member in the following year.

By the year 1850, Church had settled in New York. Church began his career by painting classic Hudson River School scenes of New York and New England. He exhibited his art at the American Art Union, the Boston Art Club and most impressively, the National Academy of Design. He was creating paintings in his studio based on the sketches of nature made outside the studio. He earned a reputation as a traveller-artist as he conducted sketching trips to the While Mountains, Western Massachusets, the Catskills, Hartford, Conn, Niagara, Virginia, Kentucky and Maine.

His Trips to South American Countries

He also made two trips to South America in 1853 and 1857. During this period, he visited volcanoes and cities of Colombia, Ecuador and the isthmus of Panama. During these trips, Frederic produced a number of landscapes of Ecuador and the Andes such as The Andes of Ecuador (1855), Cayambe (1858), the Heart of the Andes (1859) and Cotopaxi (1852). Among these paintings, The Heart of The Andes was Church’s most famous painting depicting a broad portrait of nature. The exhibition of this painting in New York in 1859 drew thousands of people and the painting was an instant success. Church eventually sold the painting for $10000 and it was the highest price ever paid for a work by a living American artist.

His Masterpieces

Some of the masterpieces of Frederic were New England Scenery (1851), Experts say that ‘it was the first true composite landscape’. The sketches were used from various locations ‘to develop a more detailed and spatially compiled landscape than found in Cole’s work’. ‘The Hert of the Andes’ (1859), ‘Cotopaxi’ (1862), ‘Tropical Scenery’ (1873) are some of his other masterpiece paintings.

He was a Successful Artist

Church’s friendship with a prominent arctic explorer stimulated his interest in the arctic regions. In 1859, Church travelled to Newfoundland and Labrador with his friend Louis Legrand Noble, an author. Church’s painting ‘The Icebergs‘ finds its mention in Noble’s book ‘After Icebergs with a Painter (1861). By 1860, Church was already a commercial and artistic success. He had become the most renowned American artist. In 1861, Church drew ‘Our Banner in the Sky‘ at the start of the Civil War as a symbol of his support to Americal victory. In 1863, he became an Associate Fellow of the Americal Academy of Arts and Sciences. His painting ‘The Iceberg’ (1861) sold for a record-setting amount in 1979.

Fredric’s Final Years

Church had been enormously successful as an artist. In the last decade of his life, he was suffering from rheumatoid arthritis and this ailment made his movement and his ability to paint difficult. Thereafter, he started painting with his left hand and continued to produce works though at a slower pace. He still taught painting to his students as his mentor Thomas Cole did. Though he kept a studio in New York, he sublet let as his illness had restricted his movement. His wife, who had been suffering from illness for several years, died in 1889. Less than a year later, on April 7 1900, Church died at 73 years of age.

American museums began to acquire Church’s works. His painting ‘Th Iceberg’ sold for $2.5 million and the amount was the third-highest auction for any work of art. A major exhibition held by the National Gallery of Art ‘American Light: The Luminist movement 1825-1875’, honoured Church as the leading American painter of his time. The Ola Partnership, a private non-profit organization, established the Frederic Church Award in 1999 to honor individuals and organizations who make extraordinary contributions to American Art.

Frederic Edwin Church – His Travels

Frederic Edwin Church was a great traveller during his active years as a painter. He travelled to the Arctic, Medico, South America, the Caribbean, Europe and the Middle East. He painted beautiful landscapes at all the places that he visited. The Arctic: The breathtaking views of the frigid have come alive in Church’s painting ‘Icebergs’ made in 1859. Church visited several times and stayed in the freezing Arctic region for several weeks and made sketches of the ice-clad landscape.

Expedition to The Acrtic

Church painted the massive white blocks of icebergs under the dim lights of the sky above. Experts say that Church added a broken ship’s mast to the foreground of the painting at a later date. They also assume that the painter was intending to highlight the failed expedition attempts of the many other earlier explorers. Inspired by the success of his painting expedition to the Arctic, Church painted ‘Aurora Borealis’ which depicts the natural phenomenon better known as the Northern Lights.

Expedition to South America

Frederic Edwin Curch’s travelled to South America twice, in 1853 and 1857. He was a staunch follower of Prussian naturalist Alexander von Humboldt who was known for his writings on nature and his teachings. Humboldt had spent several years in South America, where he studied the continent’s natural history and wrote extensively on that subject. Humboldt’s teachings had influenced Church strongly. Hence, Church retraced Humboldt’s steps during his expedition to South America. ‘Cotopaxi’ (1862) is one of his marvellous paintings that portray the elegant geographical contours of the naturally rich landscapes.

Church’s Expedition to Ecuador

Church was not a plein air painter. He made a detailed study of nature and then compiled the best features of nature into a large scale canvas. Experts believe that Church’s marvellous painting ‘Heart of the Andes’ was a tribute to the naturalist and writer Humbolt. It was also thought of as a visual synopsis of Humboldt’s work in that part of the continent, who died just before he could see this painting. Experts also believe that the Church made a glorious attempt to depict over a hundred identifiable species of plants and five different Ecuadorian climates. Experts say that in the museums where this painting is on exhibition, the authorities provide visitors with opera glasses to help them view the vivid details of these intricately painted natural elements.

His Travel to Jamaica

Church’s travel to Jamaica was as much an experience of ecstasy as it was immensely tragic. That is because Church and his wife had to spend several months in Jamaica in 1865 when they lost two young children to diphtheria. In spite of this grief, the resolute power of Church’s painting skill not only helped him overcome the grief but also produce some marvellous paintings. He travelled all over the Jamaican island to study the landscape and its floral variety and the atmospheric effects. He created large paintings using these sketches. ‘Vale of St. Thomas Jamaica‘, ‘Morning in the Tropics’ are two examples of Church’s commendable painting experience in Jamaica.

Asher Brown Durand

His Early Days

Asher Brown Durand was born on August 21, 1796, in Jefferson village New Jersey, US. He was a well-known American painter, engraver and illustrator. He studied engraving with his father, who was a watchmaker and silversmith. Durand received tutelage as an apprentice with the engraver Peter Maverick in Newark from 1812 to 1817. Later, Durand became Maverick’s associate and led the branch’s New York City branch until 1820.

Job as Engraver

Durand was also one of the founders of the Hudson River School of landscape painting. He established his reputation as an engraver with his engraving job on John Trumbull’s painting ‘Declaration of Independence (1786). He continued to engrave reproductions during the next decade. He also illustrated gift books, annuals and, mainly, engraved a popular series of 72 portraits of famous contemporary Americans.

Durand formed a partnership with his brother, Cyrus Durand, and founded a banknote engraving company. His brother, Cyrus invented machines for the mechanical drawing of lines that revolutionised the art of currency engraving. Meanwhile, Asher’s graphic work for the Federal Bureau of Printing and Engraving became influential in establishing the design tradition for US paper currency. Durand spent most of his time after 1835 in portraiture and painting portraits of several US presidents and other prominent Americans.

His Journey to Europe

Durand’s new artistic career blossomed in and after his only journey abroad from April 1840 to June 1841. He visited Britain, France Belgium Holland Germany Switzerland and Italy. Two aspiring painters accompanying Durand during his journey, who had started engraving and who would eventually become two of the famous painters, were the now-famous John Frederick Kensett and John William Casilear. Once in London, Durand and his disciples copied the old masters extensively. A crucial turn in Durand’s career happened when an American expatriate showed them paintings and plien-air sketches by the late British master John Constable. Upon return from London, Durand seemed to take Constable’s naturalism to heart.

Well-known Painting ”Kindred Spirits”

Durand visited Europe in 1840-1841 to study the work of old masters. Upon his return from Europe, he started painting, out-of-doors, Romantic landscapes of the Hudson River area, the Adirondack Mountains and New England in a precise style. ‘Kindred Spirits’ (1849) is one of his best-known paintings in which he has painted two of his friends, painter Thomas Cole, who died in 1848, and poet William Cullen Bryant in the realistic Catskill forest settings.

In this landscape painting, Durand combined the geographical features in Kaaterskill Clove and a minuscule depiction of Kaarskill falls. Experts feel that the painting was not a literal depiction of American geography. Rather, it was an idealized memory of Cole’s discovery of the region more than twenty years earlier. Alice Walton purchased Durand’s ‘Kindred Spirits’ for a reported $35 million.

Durand was one of the founders of the National Academy of Design (1826) and was its president from 1845 till 1861, until the beginning of the Civil War. He had also earned the reputation as the guiding philosopher of the second generation of New York landscape painters. His ‘Letters on Landscape Painting’ showed that he ardently promoted the practice of painting outdoors from humble natural objects as the route to learning and refining one’s art as opposed to learning from other art or artists’.

Durand retired in 1869 to his native Maplewood. In 1872, he was feted by twenty of his former colleagues from the National Academy and his work continued to appear at prominent venues and expositions in Philadelphia. Durand painted his last picture in about 1979, seven years before his death. Durand made a special mention about his famous painting ‘In the Woods’ (1855), in his “Letters on Landscape Painting”. He wrote that “it is a fine picture which at once takes possession of you – draws you into it- you traverse it – breathe its atmosphere – feel its sunshine and you repose in its shade without thinking of its design or execution effect or color.” ‘The First Harvest in the Wilderness’ is another among the famous paintings of Durand.

John Frederick Kensett

Jasper Francis Cropsey

Sanford Robinson Gifford (1823-1880)

Albert Bierstadt (1830-1902)

Alfred Bierstadt was born in Solingen, Germay, in 1830. His parents immigrated to America in 1932 and settled in New Bedford, Massachusetts. Bierstadt was a well-known figure in the 19th century Hudson River School, along with Frederic Edwin Church among others. He was also a member of the Rocky Mountain School of Painters who specialised in the grandiose mountain scenery.

Alfred Bierstadt was famous for his large-size landscape painting of Western American wilderness scenery as subjects. His subjects included American National Parks, scenic reserves, lakes glaciers and wild animals. His paintings were highly popular and sold for huge sums of money. Bierstadt returned to Germany to study with the Dusseldorf Academy during the period from 1853 to 1857 to study and develop his drawing and painting techniques.

In Germany, he sought the help of two fellow American painters to convince Andreas Achenbach to accept him as a student. The ex-pats, whose help he had sought to seek entry into the Academy, judged the quality of his paintings as low. When the incident made his entry into the Academy difficult, he remained in Europe for four more years and devoted his time for the study of his art by travelling to many places, including to France and Italy. However, experts feel that it was only in America that he found his true inspiration and these were the frontier landscapes of the Wild West.

Periof of Success

Upon his return to America in 1857, he taught drawing and painting for a brief period. After that, he decided to devote himself entirely to painting. In the beginning, he painted landscapes based on his experience in Europe and European landscapes. Thereafter he travelled to the Platte River and Wind River Mountains, sketching the breathtaking scenery and the native inhabitants. His visit to the Rockies reminded him of the Alps in Europe and the light of Italy.

Then it dawned upon him that ‘our own country has the best material for the artists in the world’. The Rocky Mountains (1860) was his first important painting from this period and this painting was reported as lost. His 1863 version of this painting, The Rocky Mountains is presently displayed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Bierstadt’s reputation began to grow when his painting ‘Rocky Mountains’ was displayed opposite a work by the highly respected landscape artist Frederic Edwin Church at the 1864 New York Sanitary Fair. Bierstadt’s success story lasted for another decade during which period his painting ‘Rocky Mountains’ sold for $25000 as did his other painting ‘Domes of Yosemite’.

Yosemite Valley Pinting

‘Domes of Yosemite‘ a painting by Bierstadt is a depiction of America’s most popular natural wonders, that of the mountain peaks of the Yosemite valley. In 1864, Abraham Lincoln officially granted the Yosemite Vally to the State of California. It was America’s first official public land trust in history. The financier Legrand Lockwood commissioned Bierstadt to create the work on Yosemite Vally. Bierstadt received an astronomical fee of $25000. This turned out to be a period of self-discovery in America and people started to realise that their landscape was as good as anything in Europe. In this painting, Bierstadt enhanced the natural scene by narrowing the valley and dramatically accentuating the heights of the mountains. Another beautiful example from this period is Mountain Brook (1863)

Acclaim and Honour

Bierstadt married in 1866 and the newlyweds spent two years travelling around Europe. During this period, he received a lot of acclaims. The couple met Queen Victoria in London and in Pris, he received the award ‘Legion of Honour’. During his travel, Bierstadt rented studios and produced works on western scenery. He returned to America in 1870 and headed west to Yosemite and the Sierra Nevada region. He stayed there for two years, sketching, painting and selling works to collectors in the San Francisco area.

Decline of Fortunes

During the 1870s, landscape paintings fell out of favour and hence Bierstadt’s happier days started to decline. His work for the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial was not well received. This painting ‘Last of the Buffalo’ (1889) was rejected for the 1889 Paris Universal Exposition. Despite’s these unfavourable incidents, Bierstadt paintings continued to find customers and fetched high prices. When his wife fell ill during the 1870s, he spent time in the Bahamas for the improvement of his wife’s declining health. When his wife died in 1893, he married a wealthy widow in the following year. Though he saw financial success to some extent, his extravagant lifestyle led him to debt. He had to sell his entire property and assets, including 150 paintings to satisfy his creditors. He died suddenly in 1902.

Bierstadt was a member of the National Academy of Design from 1860 until his death. He was a member of the Century Association, an exclusive club of authors and artists. He was highly prolific in creating his paintings and he created thousands of paintings during his lifetime. In 1998, the US Postal Service issued a set of commemorative stamps entitled Four Centuries of Americal Art and one of these stamps contained the image of Bierstadt. In 2009, his painting ‘Oregon Trail’ sold for $1.7 million and his other painting ‘Mountainous Landscape by Moonlight‘ fetched $1.1 million.