Hudson River School artists find inspiration in those hills

From fame to ridicule and back for artists

By Evelyn D. Trebilcock
For the Poughkeepsie Journal

Worthington Whittredge, one of the Hudson River School’s leading members, writes in his autobiography that the term was given “by a savage critic who wrote for the New York Tribune.” By the mid-1870s, when the Hudson River School artists were losing favor, the term was intended to differentiate their old-fashioned provincial style from that of younger European-trained artists.

The Hudson River School was America’s first school of painting, though there was never a formal school or group of artists who called themselves “Hudson River School.” Art critics, scholars and curators have determined which artists are labeled “Hudson River School.”

In the 20th century, the term has come to define the landscape artists who painted between 1825-1880, shared an interest in the pure natural landscape, and believed in a common set of philosophic and religious ideas.

These artists worked in the spirit of Thomas Cole (1801-1848), co-founder with Asher Durand (1796-1886), of the school. Hudson River School painters employed Cole’s compositional style, depicting in a detailed and finished manner locations with topographical accuracy and with attention to light and atmosphere. Their basic philosophy centered around the idea that art was the interpreter of nature and that nature was the interpreter of God.

Prior to the 19th century, nature was considered an inappropriate subject for serious art, and landscape painting was considered a lesser art form. The perfect atmosphere for an American school of landscape painting was created when late 18th-century industrialization in England ignited an interest in landscape painting and landscape tourism both in England and in the increasingly prosperous United States, where an aristocratic elite still looked to England for their cultural ideal.

Cole’s ideas, philosophies and methods became the foundation upon which the Hudson River School was built. His method, making sketches of nature out of doors and then using the sketches to create a finished work, is described in a letter to a patron dated Dec. 12, 1826.

Cole wrote: “He who would paint compositions, and not be false, must sit down amidst his sketches, make selections, and combine them, and so have nature for every object.”

The masterpieces of Cole’s early career are celebrations of the more sensational aspects of nature — mountain passes, broken tree stumps, storms — which were termed “sublime.”

Later, Cole strove to attain what he termed a “higher style of landscape.” To this end, Cole painted allegories and historical landscapes, which were intended to teach lessons enforcing moral or religious truth.

Cole sees civilization’s decline

At the height of his career, Cole painted ‘‘The Course of the Empire’’ (1836). This five-canvas allegorical series commissioned by New York merchant Luman Reed shows the theme of civilization’s evolution and ultimate destruction. Cole was always to remain disappointed, however, because his most popular works were American landscapes free from historical or religious messages.

Durand differed from Cole in his commitment to present a more naturalistic representation of the landscape, an idea promoted by the writings of the English critic John Ruskin, who advocated “truth to nature.” Durand went beyond Cole’s pencil studies to make outdoor oil sketches, his interest in detailed nature studies evident in his numerous scenes of forest interiors.

Probably Durand’s most famous work, ‘‘Kindred Spirits,’’ was painted in 1849 as a memorial to Cole. The picture shows Cole standing with his friend, the renowned poet of American nature, William Cullen Bryant, in a setting that is a combination of the Clove of the Catskills and Katerskill Falls, both in Greene County. ‘‘Kindred Spirits’’ is a perfect example of the Hudson River School’s preference for combining depictions of real places into a mixture that represents an idealized location.

During his lifetime, Frederic Edwin Church (1826-1900) was one of the most famous and successful artists of the Hudson River School. Church was able to combine the higher degree of naturalism advocated by Durand with Cole’s intense drama and moral message.

The writings of German naturalist Alexander von Humbolt had a major influence on Church’s work. Humbolt encouraged landscape painters to study nature, to compose a painting that captured the spirit of the place instead of being an exact rendering and to specialize in depicting exotic locations for the enlightenment of the public.

Church, combining Humbolt’s theories with Cole’s preference for composed landscapes, showed the connection between scientific truth and divine creation. Church went on to use similar methods in the large panoramic vistas of natural phenomena for which he is famous.

In his early masterpieces, Church often used a contemporary landscape to convey a historical event in the spirit of Cole. For example ‘‘The Charter Oak, Hartford’’ (1845) depicts the tree where, according to legend, American colonist Capt. Daniel Wadsworth hid the Connecticut charter from British Governor-General Sir Edmund Andros.

Church’s technical skills, his meticulous brushwork and his ambition are revealed in ’’Niagara,’’ (1875), depicting Niagara Falls, which made Church the most famous painter in America, and ‘‘Heart of the Andes’’ (1859), his most ambitious and complex work.

Church was part of the second generation of Hudson River School artists, which included Albert Bierstadt (1830-1902), Jasper Cropsey (1823-1900) and Worthington Whittredge (1820-1910).

Bierstadt painted large, precisely executed vistas of the American West in which he used magnified scale and dramatic effects to symbolize the idea of America’s Manifest Destiny, for example ‘‘The Rocky Mountains, Lander’s Peak’’ (1863).

Cropsey was renowned as a painter of autumn scenes. His masterpiece, ‘‘Autumn-On the Hudson River’’ (1860), was originally presented with a printed leaflet identifying the exact locations depicted in the painting.

Whittredge’s early canvases are interior woodland scenes inspired by Durand, but his later paintings are larger vistas often of the American West.

Other second-generation Hudson River School artists moved away from large vistas. The early works of John F. Kensett (1816-1872) and Sanford R. Gifford (1823-1880) reflect the influence of Durand and Cole respectively, but their mature styles tend to be smaller-scale intimate works characterized by an interest in the effects of light and atmosphere.

Some second-generation Hudson River School artists like Jervis McEntee (1828-1891) and John Casilear (1811-1893) were especially known for Hudson River Valley scenery. McEntee frequently painted late autumn and to a lesser extent winter scenes, and Casilear is known for his rendering of water scenes.

One factor in the success of the Hudson River School can be traced to nationalistic sentiment. The young United States had little historical past — it had only a future. Paintings depicting the nation’s natural resources and its widely held belief in manifest destiny (extending the nation from coast to coast) took the place of the history painting revered by Europeans.

Another factor in the growth of the Hudson River School was an increase in the number of organizations whose purpose was the exhibition, promotion and sale of art. In 1825, the National Academy of Design was founded with the dual purposes of staging annual exhibitions of contemporary art and of forming an art school. Cole, Church, Cropsey, Durand, Gifford, Kensett, McEntee and Whittredge were members, founders and presidents of the National Academy.

In 1858, the Tenth Street Studio Building opened in New York City; it was the first building in the world built to rent studios to artists. Annual exhibitions were held in the central gallery accompanied by publicized receptions encouraging patrons, critics and the general public to attend the main exhibition and visit the individual studios. The list of residents included all the major Hudson River School painters.

‘Great Pictures’ exhibit

Founded in 1838, the American Art Union, based in New York City, purchased works from American artists and distributed them to their members through an annual lottery. Those who did not win a painting in the lottery received a high-quality engraving instead. This exposure increased the popularity and public patronage of the Hudson River School artists.

The success of Frederic Church and other Hudson River School artists was based in part upon their “Great Pictures” — paintings intended for highly publicized solo exhibitions. For an admission charge of 25 cents, the public could view in a darkened room ‘‘The Heart of the Andes’’ displayed in a massive frame ornamented with dried palm fronds and surrounded by black crepe drapery. In New York, the exhibition was such a huge success that the police were needed for crowd control. ‘‘The Heart of the Andes’’ toured the United States and Europe and had two showings at the Tenth Street Studio building.

The financial success enjoyed by members of the Hudson River School enabled them to build homes and studios on the Hudson. Some were modest, such as Cole’s Italianate studio near Catskill, and Jervis McEntee’s picturesque frame studio in Rondout.

Others were on a grander scale. Between 1865 and 1866, Bierstadt built a Rhenish-style stone mansion named “Malkasten” in Irvington in Westchester County, and by 1869 Cropsey had designed and built “Aladdin,” a high-style Victorian house and studio near Warwick. Church began building the Persian-style “Olana” in 1870 near Hudson, and added a studio wing in from 1889 to 1891.

The destruction caused by the Civil War undermined the feelings of nationalism and manifest destiny that popularized portrayals of the American landscape.

Beginning after the Civil War the British Aesthetic movement, the French Barbizon school of landscape painting and French Academic paintings of the figure captured the interest of art critics and the American people.

The critics and the public began to perceive the work of the Hudson River School as dull, repetitious, overblown and ridiculous, both in themes and in treatment. The work of the Hudson River School ultimately became misunderstood as simply an imitation of nature.

But slowly, the Hudson River School regained its popularity. Major exhibitions and important scholars have studied the artists, placing them in their mid-19th century context where they are best appreciated. The prices for Hudson River School paintings began to climb in the 1960s, and in 1979 Church’s ‘‘The Icebergs’’ (1861) sold for $2.5 million, setting the record price paid for an American painting.

Most recently, on May 27, Church’s ‘‘To the Memory of Cole’’ (1848) sold at Sotheby’s New York for $4.3 million.

Retrospective exhibitions of Hudson River School artists are now common, and London’s Tate Museum plans to introduce these painters to a European audience with a touring show in 2002. The Hudson River School is appreciated as a truly native school of art.

Evelyn D. Trebilcock is assistant curator at Olana State Historic Site in Hudson, Columbia County.