The Hudson River School

The Hudson River School started in 1825 and ended in 1880.  The purpose of the Hudson River School was to help young artists view the landscape of America and romanticize it.  Some of the unique characteristics in the paintings created at the HRS were the many trees, open fields, waterfalls, mountains, dramatic sunsets, and especially the spiritual light coming from above.  There weren’t any animals in any of the paintings because if the artists wanted to romanticize the landscape, they needed to show how beautiful and safe it was, rather than how scary and dark it can really be.  Almost all of the paintings were very bright and happy.  The paintings made you feel like you would feel much better if you were to spend more time in nature rather than in the city.  Europeans did not have any open wilderness at this time such as America had, and Europeans envied that.  They wanted to be able to live in the free, open air as Americans did and still do today in some cases.  After these paintings were viewed by Europeans, they would want to move to America.  The settings of the paintings looked very realistic, but also looked unrealistic because it was so bright and beautiful with all of the waterfalls, open space, and vivid light.  Some Europeans didn’t believe these were realistic because of those things.  They didn’t believe such beautiful places could exist.

            Autumn – On the Hudson River by Jasper Francis Cropsey is a painting created at the HRS in 1860.  The HRS really got it’s name from this painting.  It is one of the most famous because of that reason.  Cropsey taught himself to draw while younger in his life (Belson & Henderson, 2011).  He specialized in autumn landscapes so he used many bright colors as well as a lot of light.  He mostly portrayed nature through this season.  His work reflected the ideals of the HRS and Romanticism in the American West by always showing the sunny side of things, literally.  None of his paintings are dark or dreary, and all have very bright colors because he chose to mostly paint autumn landscapes.

            Another piece from the HRS is Rainy Season in the Tropics by Frederic Church.  He became Thomas Cole’s only pupil at age 18, and soon thereafter started exhibiting his work (Belson & Henderson, 2011).  He loved doing paintings of the arctic as well as the tropics.  Church portrayed nature as very bright but calm.  He loved doing paintings that had anything to do with water and he enjoyed that atmosphere of being around waterfalls, lakes, or rain.  Church’s work reflected the connection with the HRS and Romanticism in the American West by showing all of the different water areas.  He loved to show the waterfalls and the lakes and how beautiful the surrounding environment was.

            Thomas Moran’s Chasm of the Colorado was painted from 1873 to 1874.  He is most famously known for doing pieces on the Rocky Mountains as well as Yellowstone (Wikipedia, 2012).  He loved doing pieces that were of canyons or mountains right after it had rained or just started to rain.  He did many elaborate things with clouds, making his pieces look very realistic in that aspect.  To romanticize the American West, Moran used very natural colors to help emphasize how important nature should be to everyone.  He wanted to show how beneficial it could be for you to just go out in the wilderness by yourself and just enjoy the beauty around you.

            In conclusion, because of these paintings, people from Europe wanted badly to come to America.  If they wanted so badly to come to America and see these beautiful landscapes, we should want to protect them as much as we can.  “Find…encouragement and inspiration in precisely the present condition of things, and cherish it with the fondness and enthusiasm of lovers” (Allen & Almonte, 2009, p. 354).  This means that although we should be happy with the current circumstances, meaning how our landscapes are now, we should want to protect them and better them as much as possible.  The painters from the HRS Romanticized the American West because of our beautiful landscapes.  We should want to continue that romanticism and keep them looking as beautiful as we can.

References

Belson, J., & Henderson, R.  (2011).  Retrieved March 1, 2012 from:  http://whitemountainart.com/biographies/bio_jfc.htm

Belson, J., & Henderson, R.  (2011).  Retrieved March 1, 2012 from:  http://whitemountainart.com/biographies/bio_fec.htm

Wikipedia.  (2012).  Retrieved March 1, 2012 from:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Moran

Allen, P., & Almonte, P.  (2009).  That is the question.  United States of America:  Pearson.