Beyond the View: The Hudson River School and Religious Landscapes

    More than simply depicting the landscape of their beloved country, the first American landscape painters were concerned with expressing the goodness and transcendence of God through their work. Their paintings intentionally served moral and religious purposes. Deeply shaped by Protestant Christianity, these artists believed that art was made relevant through its connection to religion. For the Hudson River School painters, the physical beauty of the natural world was inseparable from the glory of God. They held strongly to the conviction that all beauty points to God and that He could be seen in the order found in nature. Therefore, the aesthetic quality of their work served to remind the viewer of God by leading them into spiritual contemplation. Viewing beauty and truth as connected, they hoped to inspire both reverence and humility in the viewer while also communicating truths about the Christian faith. Notably, the prevalence of light in their works served as evidence of God’s presence and grace in the landscapes they painted. Similarly, mountains made regular appearances in these works as a symbol of God’s power. As the American landscape became increasingly more developed, these artists sought to be agents of unity between nature and civilization and believed that this work had both moral and religious significance. These paintings represent a time when Americans viewed their land and the world around them through a primarily religious lens, a view that declined as industrialization and science caused an increase in secularism.

Jasper Francis Cropsey, Autumn–On the Hudson River, 1860, Oil on canvas, National Gallery of Art, 1963.9.1

This painting, bathed in light and defined by great detail and an infinite sense of space, is a primary example of the goals of the Hudson River School. The light streaming from the center of the painting and illuminating the entire scene serves as a reminder of God’s providence and presence in His creation. While the foreground is wild, natural land, the landscape becomes progressively more developed as it approaches the distant river. Cropsey sought to communicate harmony between nature and civilization and to present autumn as a time of fruitfulness rather than death. Cropsey’s optimism was likely fueled by his view that God was present in this place, shown through the light falling on everything in sight and the small clusters of three white flowers in the bottom left corner that he often used to represent the Trinity.

Frederic Church, Heart of the Andes, 1859, Oil on canvas, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 09.95

Although the Hudson River painters are known for their depictions of the American landscape, their understanding of God’s transcendence was not limited to the landscape of their home country. This painting, inspired by Church’s travels in Ecuador, demonstrates the use of an atmospheric depth often used in the Hudson River School as a visual representation of transcendence. The deep field and high horizon continue to draw the viewer into the unfolding landscape and eventually past it into infinite sky. By leading the viewer’s attention in this way, Church demonstrates that nature’s significance is found in its ability to help the viewer contemplate spiritual truths. In the bottom left corner of the painting, Church makes a more direct connection to Christianity through the presence of a cross and the figures gathered around it.

Frederic Church, Twilight, “Short Arbiter ‘Twixt Day and Night”, 1850, Oil on canvas, Newark Museum of Art

This naturalistic painting of a landscape at dusk is representative of the way that the Hudson River School sought to represent the natural characteristics of a landscape while also viewing these characteristics as a means for communicating spiritual truths. The painting’s title is a reference to Satan’s return to Eden in Milton’s Paradise Lost. While creating a beautifully striking scene through contrasting light and dark, Church turns the familiar experience of watching the sun disappear behind the horizon into a contemplation of the conflict between good and evil. He reminds the viewer that awe of nature and contemplation of God can be one and the same experience.

Asher Durand, Kindred Spirits, 1849, Oil on canvas, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, 2010.106

This painting, serving as a tribute to Thomas Cole and William Cullen Bryant, represents a key relationship between human figures and the landscape. Although the subject of the painting is the relationship between these two figures, they do not dominate the landscape. They are presented as a small part of the unfolding scene. The smallness of these figures is reflected throughout the Hudson River School in which human figures are often minuscule and difficult to locate within the vast landscapes. The smallness of human figures helped the viewer to find their place in the painting, making them feel small in comparison to the landscape. Through minimizing the individual, Hudson River artists sought to communicate the human need for salvation. This sense of smallness was a reminder of human insufficiency in the midst of a painting that served as a reminder of the power and goodness of God.

Thomas Cole, View on the Catskill–Early Autumn, 1836-37, Oil on canvas, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 95.13.3

In this painting, Cole depicts the view from the doorstep of his home. As the Catskill and Canajoharie Railroad expanded, he mourned the destruction of this beautiful landscape. Eventually, he relied on his previous sketches to finish this work as that natural beauty before him began to disappear. The mother and child in the lower left corner serve as a reminder of Mary and Christ and the white horse farther to the left would have been recognized as a symbol of purity. Cole sought to remind Americans of the value of their beautiful landscape before it was too late. Through this painting, Cole makes an appeal to the viewer to remember the beauty of nature as a source of morality and an opportunity for contemplation. The destruction of the American wilderness was devastating to Cole, who believed that nature revealed truths about the Creator just as much as religious practices.

Worthington Whittredge, The Camp Meeting, 1874, Oil on canvas, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 13.39.1

In this panoramic painting of an outdoor camp meeting, Whittredge draws a direct connection between the beauty of the Catskill mountains and early religious practices in the United States. By 1874, these religious gatherings had become less frequent because of an increase in urbanization. In this painting, Whittredge creates the same effect of infinite space that was characteristic of the Hudson River School. Whittredge presents nature as a place where God can be experienced. It seems clear that the people in this scene are experiencing God as light, usually used to represent God’s presence, providence, and grace, shines down on them. Finally, Whittredge uses the late afternoon light to evoke a sense of nostalgia which reminded Americans of a time when people went out into nature to worship and contemplate God’s truth.

Thomas Cole, View from Mount Holyoke, Northampton, Massachusetts, after a Thunderstorm (The Oxbow), 1836, Oil on canvas, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 08.228

While Hudson River landscapes are often characterized by a sense of unity, Cole uses this painting to depict conflict. He contrasts storm and clear sky, wilderness and civilization. Although Cole’s painting represents great conflict, it also serves as a proposition for unity. The artist is present at the center of the conflict communicating that nature and civilization can find reconciliation through art. Almost directly above him, a hill in the distance is marked with the Hebrew letters for “Shaddai”. In this way, Cole reminds the viewer that God is the original artist of the scene before them and that his work as an artist is a reflection of God’s original creation. Cole not only represents his desire to unite nature and civilization through his artistic work but also defines this as a spiritual and moral task by connecting his work to God’s.

References:

Cooper, James. Knights of the Brush: The Hudson River School and the Moral Landscape. New York: Hudson Hills Press, 1999. 

Veith, Gene. Painters of Faith: The Spiritual Landscape in Nineteenth-Century America. Washington DC: Regnery Publishing, 2001.