Light Filled Landscapes

This exhibition is about the Hudson River School and romantic landscape painters of the 19^th century who saw the American landscapes through a religious lens. These painters saw the beauty of nature, and more specifically landscapes, manifested in God’s presence. The Hudson River School artists were practicing virtue through the act of painting and some saw the act of painting as an act of prayer exalting God for the glorious world He created. Though they affirmed the unity of art and religion, some painters had disagreements on the topics of industrialization, utilitarianism, and manifest destiny; as these were all present issues in their time. Artists like Thomas Cole clearly evoked hatred towards industrialization in their paintings. Other artists like Asher Durand, Jasper Francis Cropsey, and Frederic Edwin Church showed an acceptance towards this movement by beautifully portraying buildings, people, and American life in their paintings. Their nationalistic mindset influenced their painting; they loved God and they loved America. They expressed their love for America and what God has done in it through their artwork. Both groups of artists were exalting God in his creation, but they lacked agreement on whether manifest destiny was God’s gift or not. Their art was inextricably bound with its moral and social functions. Americans that braved the wilderness at the beginning of the 19^th century experienced true hardship. The Hudson River School artists portrayed this land as a place for God seeking, freedom-loving people who loved our Father’s creation. 

Asher Brown Durand, Early Morning at Cold Spring, 1850. Oil on canvas, 59 x 47 ½ in. The Montclair Art Museum. Museum Purchase, Florence O. R. Lang Acquisition Fund (1945.8).

Asher Brown Durand’s Early Morning at Cold Spring is a breathtaking landscape of a small city from a distance. Placing yourself in the painting, as the person with his back towards you, evokes a quiet, peaceful feeling. Durand depicts a love for the beauty God has created and sustains. He brings the viewer into his journey of spirituality by imitating God’s creative land. Durand is showing his ability to express this landscape filled with God’s presence.

Asher Brown Durand, Kindred Spirits, 1849. Oil on canvas, 46 x 36 in. The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations.

Durand’s painting portrays one of his colleagues, Thomas Cole, standing on top of a rock, deep in conversation with writer and poet William Cullen Bryant. This painting’s setting was the Clove of the Catskills whose serene brook is fed by the nearby Kaaterskills Falls. Observing the portrayal of Cole and Bryant as they interact, you can perceive that they are mutually connecting with nature. In this painting, you can see Durand and Cole’s agreement on nature’s aesthetic beauty. This scene was a tribute to Cole’s memory, as he passed shortly before the work was published.

Jasper Francis Crospey, Autumn- On the Hudson River, 1860, Oil on canvas, 79 x 126 ½ in. National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. Gift of the Avalon Foundation (1963.9.1).

Autumn- On the Hudson River is the largest known painting of Jasper Francis Crospey in existence today. Crospey uses lively and warm colors to draw the viewer into the experience. He said this painting was to “convey an idea of the vastness and magnitude of the American landscape.” He creates an aesthetic beauty that elevates the mind of the viewer towards divine thoughts instead of secular. The presumable sun at the top of the painting gives a clear aesthetic focus to the viewer. This painting beautifully portrays autumn in America.

Frederic Edwin Church, New England Scenery, 1851. Oil on canvas, 36 x 53 in. George Walter Vincent Smith Art Museum, Springfield, Massachusetts. George Walter Vincent Smith Collection (1.23.24).

In New England Scenery, Church shows a mixture of natural landscape and human’s habitation. The mill, bridge, wagon, and other man-made objects in this painting do not create a sense of unease for the viewer. Church portrays them as coexisting happily together. The people and animals are carrying on with their lives. There are cattle drinking from the water and a person working on the bridge. All of these signs point to Church agreeing with the unity of nationalism, aesthetic beauty, and God.

Thomas Cole, The Course of Empire: The Savage State, 1836. Oil on canvas, 39 ¼ x 63 ¼ in. The New York Historical Society (1858.1).

The Course of Empire has several parts to it. The Savage State is the first of the series depicting a wild, moving piece. The only humans in it are hunting and are also pictured in motion. This painting displays nature and it’s aesthetic beauty as superior to the humans that seem as if chaos is amidst their everyday life. Cole ended up having an extremely political message intertwined with this painting in respect to Jackson’s presidency; this ended up leaving him with some regret in respect to it’s secular message. The first painting clearly shows the beauty of God’s creation, though the rest lead to a political message.

Thomas Cole, The Oxbow, 1836. Oil on canvas, 51 ½ x 76 in. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Gift of Mrs. Russell Sage, 1908 (08.228).

This vast landscape painting depicts two different scenes on a strong diagonal axis. On the left there is a wild, untamed sky and land. The sky’s thunderstorm and torn apart ground depict the natural ware and tear of earth. The right side has no thunderstorm, just simple distant clouds. The ground is clearly tamed by humans. The fields are plowed, there are smoke clouds from presumably chimneys or fires and there are boats on the water. Cole is clearly stating his dislike for utilitarianism by showing the beautiful natural destruction of the earth next to human’s destruction.