Thomas Cole and The Hudson School of Romantic Landscape

John Singer Sargent (1884-1916) was the portrait artist for rulers and the upper class in both Europe and the United States of America. He was considered the greatest painter of his era. In addition, he was born abroad and an expatriate in his life; he loyally supported all things English, but never renounced his American citizenship. Sargent’s works reveal the individuality and personality of his sitters. Sargent was one of the last great Realist artists of his time. Realism was a reaction against Romanticism and sprung out of the toppling of the old order during the French Revolution. Realism focused on the modern world instead of the historical, the truth instead of the varnished truth. Sargent refused to embrace the modern styles that became popular towards the last decades of his life,

Prior to my research on Winslow Homer, I had no knowledge of who he was as an artist. After reading about Homer and his life, I learned that he was one of the greatest American painters of the 19th century and had a big impact on the art world. I chose to do my paper on Winslow Homer because I saw a few of his paintings of boats floating in the ocean and was blown away by the strokes he produced. I expected him to be a rural European artist that mainly did landscapes, and while there is some truth behind my assumption, I learned a lot about him that I didn’t expect.

    Thomas Kinkade was known for using strong contrasts between light and dark. He had many artistic talents that spanned over many genres and styles. Kinkade would use “symbols and uplifting imagery to communicate his point of view.” He forged his own path while developing his own styles and techniques. Although Kinkade tried to forge his own path, he had inspirations as well. “The Hudson River and Rocky Mountain Schools of Painting heavily influenced Kinkade’s Early Work”

From sea to shining sea, in an upcoming era that will change the course of the Americas. The Hudson River School sparked an interest in the natural emotions of artist, as they covered the transcendentalist views to the awakenings of romanticism. When people think of romanticism, they often imagine Cupid with his bow and arrow striking two soul mates into eternal love. However, many have been misled in this depiction of romanticism. A movement from contemporary art known as “romanticism” leads the views of people’s revolutionary views to the nostalgia of nature’s true glory in the Hudson River School of art.

Thomas Cole, born in England, is known for his paintings of the American wilderness, specifically for his painting The Oxbow, which portrays Mount Holyoke in Northampton, Massachusetts after a thunderstorm. This work, now on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, was painted with oil on canvas in 1836. The painting is very large with measurements of 130.8 x 193 cm. The work depicts mountains and valleys with greens and browns where the left half of the sky is dark and gloomy, as it is still in the midst of the storm, and the right half shows a bright scene with fluffy white clouds (Kahn Academy). The most dominant aspect of the painting is the oxbow, the “U” shaped bend in the river (Dictionary.com). In The Oxbow, Thomas Cole uses the elements line, space, shape, and color in order to intricately portray the sense of calm after a storm in Northampton,

During the late 1750’s visual art began to take its place in the colonial world with the birth of “Several outstanding artists” and their talent with portrait painting and

During the nineteenth century, artists wanted to create awareness of nature before it changed completely. The landscape paintings represent more than the beauty of nature: it can trigger a memory, tell a story, document a moment. Thru Cole's painting of 1828, where he illustrates the story of Adam and Eve expulsion from the "Paradise" land , I remember the moment when I returned to Venezuela after spending one year abroad. The Expulsion from the Garden of Eden is based on the biblical metaphor of Adam and Eve; who had the opportunity to live in a paradise land, with the exception that they wouldn’t consume a fruit from a specific tree.

Many of their paintings, including Cole’s, focused on Romantic-picturesque landscape views. Furthermore, these paintings usually depicted the American west, furthering westward expansion. Some of Cole’s most famous painting include: the Oxbow, the Mountain Ford, and Early Autumn. The Oxbow depicts a landscape view of a storm rolling in over the mountain range(left side of painting).

Within his paintings, Church creates highly romanticized pastorals by utilizing emphasized natural lighting and vivid color. In his paintings, he depicted scenes of idyllic, flawless image of natural purity, which often include an ever extending view into the horizon. What Church paints is not real, but an idealized version of what nature has created. The style of the Hudson Valley School exemplifies American exceptionalism within a visual form. Hudson River School artists, like Church, intentionally depict a partially realistic, somewhat dreamlike perfection that exhibits the American landscape. The quintessential expansive horizon also represents the limitless possibilities for the future of America. The “artificialness”, seen in Church’s paintings, of crafting a scene more perfect than nature had created it parallels Church’s manipulation of Olana’s landscape. Church harnesses his control over nature in real life in his attempt to create an idealized “three dimensional painting” of nature in Olana the same way he does in his two dimensional

Frederic Edwin Church is a famous American landscape painter. He was born in Hartford, Connecticut on May 4, 1826 to Eliza and Joseph Church. The family was quite wealthy due to his father, joseph. This allowed Church to pursue his passion of art. He was able to network with other artists and eventually became Thomas Cole’s student. Church Shadowed Cole, following him to go sketch often in the Catskill Mountains and the Berkshires of Massachusetts. He quickly had a reputation in New York and from this moment, he career grew. His paintings are now being showcased in many museums. After living a long life of fame as an artist, he passed away from illness on April 7, 1900.

This picture represents early American landscape. It shows the view point breeze located on the banks of the Delaware River near Bordentown, New Jersey. This unidentified topographical river view was the larger painting that Birch had painted that year. Birch was influences with the eighteenth century French art. He draws this large view full of various colors such as pastel pinks, blue, and green.

The Mississippi River in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn The Mississippi River stretches from north to the gulf. The river provides to many cities by providing transportation, recreation, and economical advantages. In Mark Twain’s novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Twain utilizes the river’s power, independence, sanctity, and structure for the story to contrast nature and civilization. Thus, Twain tells of the importance of nature as an escape from society.

Jump up ^ Fred Kleiner (8 January 2009). Gardner's Art through the Ages: The Western Perspective. Cengage Learning. pp. 179–. ISBN 0-495-57360-4.

In John Constable’s painting, The Haywain, the type of landscape that is depicted is a picturesque landscape (Scheiwiller 9-15-15). Picturesque landscapes are landscapes that have a sense of vividness and tend to move in a more leisurely pace (Scheiwiller 9-15-15). In such paintings, not much is going on, however they display a peaceful and calm Romantic landscape (Scheiwiller 9-15-15). Similarly, John Constable shows a glimpse of his childhood through his painting of a cool autumn day out on the countryside in which farmers are leisurely working in peace (Adams 492). This

The recently installed exhibition, “Love of Life and Landscape: The Art of Edward E. Nichols,” is not only a posthumous retrospective of his superb painting, but evokes a sentimental attachment for many of us who knew him.