Hudson River School Review

Benjamin West

(1738-1820) Quaker-born neoclassical painter from Pennsylvania, who was the second president of the Royal Academy in London. He painted historical scenes around and after the time of the American Revolution. He was the first American painter to study and teach in Europe, and his teachings drastically influenced the generation of Hudson River School artists that came after him. "The Death of General Wolfe" is one of his best known works.

Thomas Doughty

(1793-1856) He quit his job as a leather dealer at age 27 to make a career out of his painting hobby. Like many early American painters, he retained a nostalgia for a Europe he had never known, and was largely influenced by European painters like Ruisdale and Claude. He painted "Ruins in a Landscape," "In the Catskills," "Landscape after Ruisdael,"View toward the Hudson River," and "View of the Fairmount Waterworks"

Asher Brown Durand

(1796-1886) New Jersey-born painter who featured the late Thomas Cole in his work "Kindred Spirits," signaling the transference of the Hudson River School's leadership to him following Cole's death. He became president of the National Academy of Design.

middle ground

part of the artwork that appears to be between object in the foreground and the background

background

part of the artwork that appears to be in the distance or behind the object in the foreground

Emphasis

principle of art that stresses one element or area of the artwork

balance

principle of design the deals with arranging elements equally in a work of art

forground

the part of the artwork that seems closest to you

Thomas Cole

(1801-1848) English-born American painter who is considered leader of the Hudson River School. He studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. Many of his works are inspired by the Bible and James Fenimore Cooper's novel "Last of the Mohicans." His painting "The Oxbow" has become a topographical symbol of American landscape treatment. Other works include "The Course of the Empire" series, "Garden of Eden," and "The Subsiding of the Waters of the Deluge."

Fitz Hugh Lane

(1804-1865) This luminist artist grew up by the sea in Gloucester, Massachusetts, and he likely would have pursued a seafaring career had he not developed paralysis of the legs as an infant. Instead, he pursued an artistic career as a "marine painter" and primarily produced maritime landscapes.

John Frederick Kensett

(1816) This second generation Hudson River School painter who was originally trained as an engraver in Connecticut. He helped found the Metropolitan Museum of Art and is known for /luminist/ landscape paintings of New England and New York like "Lake George," "Upper Mississippi," "Trout Fisherman," "The Old Pine," and "Mount Washington from the Valley of Conway."

Martin Johnson Heade

(1819-1904) Martin Johnson Heade was a prolific American painter known for his salt marsh landscapes, seascapes, and depictions of tropical birds, as well as lotus blossoms and other still lives; (think of haystacks and Brazilian birds)

Worthington Whittredge

(1820-1910) Ohio-born painter who served as President of the National Academy of Design. He studied in Germany with Emanuel Leutze and even posed George Washington for Leutze's famous painting, "Washington Crossing the Delaware." He also journeyed across the Great Plains to the Rocky Mountains in 1865 with fellow Hudson River School artists, Sanford Gifford and John Frederick Kensett. He painted "Morning in the Woods" and "The Trout Pool"

Robert Scott Duncanson

(1821-1872) African American artist who grew up in Canada, but moved to Ohio to begin his painting career. In 1851 Nicholas Longworth, one of Cincinnati's wealthiest citizens, notably commissioned him to paint 8 murals of the Belmont, Longworth's home. He moved to Canada during the civil war, and is to this day considered one of Canada's earliest professional cultivators of the fine arts. Famous Works include "Vale of Kashmir," "Uncle Tom and Little Eva," "Landscape with Rainbow/The Rainbow," and "Land of the Lotus Eaters"

Sanford Robinson Gifford

(1823-1880) This artist's landscapes are known for their emphasis on light and soft atmospheric effects, and he is regarded as a practitioner of Luminism. He also met and traveled extensively with Albert Bierstadt and Worthington Whittredge. His "chief pictures" (as he called them) include "Lake Nemi," "The Wilderness," "A Passing Storm," and "Ruins of the Parthenon"

Jasper Francis Cropsey

(1823-1900) painter born in Staten Island, NY and originally trained as an architect. He painted "The Spirit of War" and "Starrucca Viaduct" (which featured a steam engine).

Frederic Edwin Church

(1826) This Connecticut-born artists was the only student of Thomas Cole and is often described as the culminating master of the Hudson River School. Like most second generation Hudson River School painters, he used extraordinary detail, romanticism, and luminism in his paintings, and he was heavily influenced by his travels outside the United States. He painted "Twilight in the Wilderness," "Aurora Borealis," and "Niagara Falls"

Albert Bierstadt

(1830-1902) German-born American landscape painter who studied under Karl Lessing. He eagerly journeyed westward across North America and is best known for his paintings of mountains, namely "the Rocky Mountains." Other works include "Among the Sierra Nevada Mountains" and "Yosemite Valley."

Louis Rémy Mignot

(1831-1870)The only southern-born member of the Hudson River school. His rigorous European education and his Ecuadorian expedition alongside Frederic E. Church drastically improved his artistic abilities. He painted "Travelers in a Tropical Landscape"

Thomas Moran

(1837-1926) This English-born American artists is perhaps best known for his paintings of the "Grand Canyon of Yellowstone." He- (along with Albert Bierstadt, Thomas Hill, and William Keith)- is sometimes associated with the Rocky Mountain School of landscape painters. He died in the same year as Claude Monet, and his death marks the end of the Hudson River School.

Rocky Mountain School

A subset of Hudson River School artists who were better known for painting western landscapes; Thomas Moran and Albert Bierstadt were influenced by the beauty of the Rocky Mountain regions, and created works that romanticized the West.

Luminism

An American painting style during the Hudson River School's second generation (1850s - 1870s); Though this style emphasizes the effects of light and the interaction between water and sky and landscape, it differs from Impressionism through attention to detail and hiding of brushstrokes; this style is connected to America's Transcendentalist movement, proponents of which believed that meditative experiences with nature could lead to higher spiritual truths

John Ruskin

This British cultural critic was not himself a member of the American Hudson River school, but his critical influence extended to almost all the school's members. His works, "The Stones of Venice" and "Modern Painters," analyzed architecture, discussed landscape painting, and considered the spiritual implications of art. He originated the term "pathetic fallacy," which is a literary term for the attribution of human emotion and conduct to all aspects within nature.

Hudson River School

a movement of nineteenth century landscape painters in the US, who were connected by a passionate romantic attachment to the inspiring landscape of the North American Continent, along with a desire to imbue the land with a spiritual identity.

space

element of art that refers to the emptiness or area between shapes. It can create the illusion of depth on a flat surface

value

element of art that refers to the lightness of darkness of a color

color

element that is derived from reflected light. also called hue. Color changed in value and intensity depending on the amount of light present