Landscape

Question 1

Thomas Cole

Answer 1

1801-48

active 1830-40s

• Born in England. Comes to US in 1818
• 1st generation Hudson River School HRS
• Framing elements
• NYC generated attention from William Dunlauo, Asher Durand, John Trumbull,
• Luman Reed - a patron of HRS
• wilderness vs civilization -> industriualisation
• no specific depiction of trees

Question 2

Answer 2

The course of Empire

1834-36

• Allegorical study
• Classical references to warn americans - industrialization - will destroy humanity
• Pastoral scene is Cole’s ideal scene for mankind
• HRS integrally connected to God, Nature, and Man.
• How does man get divine salvation? By maintaining a close relationship to God’s natural world.

Question 3

Answer 3

Thomas Cole

Course of Empire - 1834-36

Savage State

• ideal state of natural world - untouched
• calm
• hunters teepees

Question 4

Answer 4

Thomas Cole

Course of Empire

Pastoral stage 1834-36

• shepard. old vs. young. ruins. stone on mountains=god, cultivation of land
• settled land. pre urban ancient greece

Question 5

Answer 5

Thomas Cole

Course of Empire

Consummation of Empire stage 1834-36

• mighty civilization
• the man made is crowding out the natural divine

Question 6

Answer 6

Thomas Cole

Course of Empire

Destruction stage 1834-36

• when man loses touch with nature.
• Everything is falling apart
• Fallen civilization

Question 7

Answer 7

Thomas Cole

Course of Empire

Desolation stage 1834-36

• The works of man has faded. Nature wins

Question 8

Answer 8

Thomas Cole

the oxbow 1836

• Wild/savage on one side and pastoral on the other
• Progress is coming across
• Storm blasted three in front, reminds us of god’s power

Question 9

Answer 9

Thomas Cole

1840 Voyage of life

Childhood Dawn. Emerging from a cave

Youth You are ready to go on your own

Manhood Praying on a boat. The angle is far away

Old age The angle had come back. And drags you to the light (life is over). The water I calm again.

Question 10

ASHER B. DURAND

Answer 10

ASHER B. DURAND

1796-1886

• Patron and contemporary of Cole (1835)
• Leading landscape painter after Cole’s death
• more specific depiction of trees
• The beauty of nature. Create a mood with nature
• Plays with the contrast of cultivated and wild

Question 11

Answer 11

Asher Durand

1849 - Kindred Spirits

• Depiction of Cole and WC Bryant in the Catskills as a memorial piece
• Romantic themes
• Typical framing elements and makeup of landscape painting

Question 12

Answer 12

Asher Durand

1849 - Beeches

• Arcadian scene of beeches (framing elements of the trees)
• Pastoral landscape at its finest
• has a shepard way off in the background, a cultivated landscape to some degree

1855 - In the Woods

• A more ruskinian view of nature. Encouraging artist to look close on nature. A scene that is more so less wild.

Question 13

FREDERIC EDWIN CHURCH

Answer 13

FREDERIC EDWIN CHURCH

1826-1900

(active 1850s)

• Attention to specificity of details
• Supremely talented painter
• Mid 20s trains with Cole for 3 years, Cole’s only student
• Incredibly specific depictions of natural elements
• Sublime→ in sky and in the subjects he chooses

Question 14

Answer 14

Frederick Church

Niagara Falls 1857

• No framing elements, the waterfall itself
• panoramic view
• Niagara as an important american landscape
• Shows someone who has studied how water goes over a rock and changes in color and tone as it falls
• Not only looking at mist to understand how it transforms vision but figuring out a way to replicate it throughout the scene
• Seen as this ultimate point of sublimity

Question 15

Answer 15

Frederick Church

1859→ Heart of the Andes

• South America as a destination
• ATTENTION TO DETAIL
• Every mini part of this work is a mini painting
• a church is depicted
• Always God is omnipresent

Question 16

Answer 16

Frederick Church

1860→ Twilight in the Wilderness–

• SUBLIME SKY
• During the civil war – others were thinking of it as the twilight of society
• Also referred to as - Worshipping at the alter of nature
• The introduction of chromium colors made it possivle to paint the sunset

Question 17

JOHN FREDERICK KENSETT

Answer 17

JOHN FREDERICK KENSETT

1816-72

(active late 1850s)

• Begun his career as a engraver
• Goes to Europe with Durand…
• Returns to America 1847
• Silvery, misty, sparkley
• Known for his lake George scenes
• Meditative contemplative relationship with nature

Question 18

Answer 18

JOHN FREDERICK KENSETT

1855 → Bash Bish Falls

Question 19

Answer 19

John Frederick Kensett,

Lake George, 1856

• emerging vacationing class
• these areas were becoming the summer destination for wealthy New York City families

Question 20

Answer 20

JASPER CROPSEY

1860→ Autumn on the Hudson River

• known for making autumn autumnal
• second rate painter
• he was not in US when he painted it

Question 21

Albert Bierstadt

Answer 21

Albert Bierstadt

1830-1902

(active 1860s)

• Looking at the West as Arcadian
• He trained in Germany, Dusseldorf
• Moody and tonal painter. Mountains fading out. A sense of space and sparseness
• The landscape had a sense of the sublime
• An emotional description of the drama that cannot be caught in a photo.

Question 22

Answer 22

Albert Bierstadt

1863

• Not as metrically painted as church. You cannot tell each tree
• An extreme and dramatic proportion of nature
• Compositionally he is not as intuitive as Church
• Natives and their artifacts in the front. Major focal point in the center. You are drawn back and forth between the foreground and the background

Question 23

Answer 23

Albert Bierstadt

Looking Up Yosemite Valley, 1865-67

• The landscape is fixed to look more romantic and clean. To exaggerate the experience of the view
• One of the most used view points of the montains. At this time, this view gets established as the view to show the valley.
• The distortions of the view makes the result look more dramatic than the real view.