The Hudson River School: Birth of The Great American Landscape

by Elizabeth Tiernan

In the mid-1800s, a group of artists dramatically changed the direction of landscape painting with their images of the wildly untamed Hudson River valley in New York. This group became known as the Hudson River School, although they were neither part of an actual school nor a formal art movement. While European artists of the time were producing more traditional paintings, these artists were inspired by the natural beauty of America’s undeveloped countryside.

Humble Beginnings

Prior to the emergence of the Hudson River School, many American painters preferred the style and subject matter of the more traditional European artists. Landscapes were not considered important subject matter for professional artists at the time. The Hudson River artists, however, saw incredible possibilities in the vast expanses of undeveloped American terrain. Many of these artists created their sketches outdoors then completed their paintings indoors in their art studios.

The Hudson River School landscape style was initially influenced by the Romanticism movement that was happening in Europe, and their mission was to convey the beauty of America’s countryside. Their paintings embraced the concept of the sublime, which was a key theme in the art of the Romanticism era. The sublime placed a great emphasis on evoking strong emotions and less importance on photo-realistic representations.

Like most artistic styles that were not named until many years after their artwork was created, the group of American painters did not receive the name of Hudson River School until many years after the style fell out of favor. The source of the name is not confirmed, but it was generally understood to have a somewhat negative connotation, implying that landscape paintings did not have universal appeal and were not appropriate subjects for serious artists.

An Overnight Success

The earliest of the Hudson River School paintings were created by Thomas Doughty who was one of the first artists to create paintings of the Hudson River valley. But the group’s most celebrated artist was Thomas Cole. Cole had no formal art training when he first began creating sketches of the Catskill Mountains. His style of combining the concepts of realism and idealism was quite original at the time. At the start of his career, he completed 3 small paintings of his landscapes and displayed them in a bookshop in New York City where they attracted the attention of three more established artists. John Trumbull, William Dunlap and Asher Durand were impressed with Cole’s unique style and helped launch the young artist’s career by bringing widespread attention to his work.

Cole became an instant success virtually overnight and later gained recognition as the founder of the Hudson River School. The paintings he created were often praised not only for their expertly rendered details, but also for conveying both the beauty of the untamed land and the promise of modern development. Over the course of his career, Cole trained only one student; a young artist named Frederic Church. Church learned well under Cole’s guidance and eventually found success as a member of the second generation of Hudson River School artists.

Other artists of the Hudson River School hoped to find the same success as Cole, and they began creating paintings in areas around upstate New York. Their technique was similar to Cole’s, sketching on site in pencil and paint and finishing their paintings indoors in their studios. The resulting paintings were often composites depicting a more idealized scene than a realistic rendering of the landscape as it naturally appeared. This was done with the intention of drawing powerful emotions from viewers, as if to overwhelm them with the beauty of nature.

Asher Durand, one of the artists who discovered Thomas Cole’s work in the shop window, was strongly influenced by the British Romanticist painter John Constable. Constable painted directly from the outdoor scene in front of him, rather than returning to his studio to develop his paintings as Cole had done. Durand became a close friend of Cole’s and after Cole died in 1848, he took over as the leader of the Hudson River School. Under Durand’s guidance, the Hudson River artists gradually began to favor a more naturalistic approach to their paintings.

The Second Generation

The second generation of the Hudson River School included artists Albert Bierstadt, John Frederick Kensett, and Thomas Cole’s protégé, Frederic Church. These artists were strongly influenced by the style and process of the original Hudson River painters, but they wanted to expand into different areas of America. Both Church and Bierstadt became very well known. Church began exploring in South America, while Bierstadt focused on the terrain of the Western states. Their canvases were typically quite large and featured composite scenes, created to show panoramic views of the wilderness. Church, like his instructor Thomas Cole, made many sketches outdoors at his chosen locations, and developed them in his studio into large, imposing canvases. Bierstadt took many photographs while on location near the Rocky Mountains which he later used to develop his paintings. Through his work in this area, he became known as “The Painter of the West.”

Light, Water and the Rocky Mountains

While Church and Bierstadt brought their passion for landscape painting to new locations, John Frederick Kensett decided to take his landscapes in a new direction. He began working to develop a style which later became known as Luminism. His landscapes were studies of light upon water, and he returned to paint the same locations multiple times. Kensett’s canvases were smaller than those of his other Hudson River colleagues and were a significant departure from the large composite scenes of those other artists. The Luminist style he favored featured softer, less-defined brushstrokes that in some ways resembled paintings in the Impressionist style. Kensett enjoyed helping to promote other artists and was one of the founders of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

In the 1860s, three other artists, Thomas Moran, William Keith and Thomas Hill, joined Bierstadt in his focus on the American West. They eventually became known as the Rocky Mountain School. The large composite paintings of these artists captured the hope and promise of western expansion into the wild and unmarred terrain. It was not uncommon for these artists to join expeditions into areas like the Rocky Mountains, the Grand Canyon and the land that was later to become Yellowstone National Park.

The Father of American Landscape Painting

George Inness created his best-known paintings during the later years of the Hudson River School. He was often described as “the father of American landscape painting.” As a young man, Inness studied briefly under French painter Regis Francois Gignoux, who instilled in him the lessons of the Old Masters. Inness also studied the work of Thomas Cole and Asher Durand and began to consider the possibility of combining the styles of the two artists.

Inness made multiple trips to Europe over several decades, influenced by the Old Masters and several prominent European painters but he identified more with the emerging Barbizon School of painters. The American Barbizon art movement, along with the Impressionists, began to gain popularity as the Hudson River School’s style lost momentum. The Barbizon style included darker tones and looser brush strokes than those used in the Hudson River School paintings.

The process Inness developed to create his paintings involved observing the landscape before him and making detailed sketches of individual elements, but not of the scene as a whole. Once he returned to his studio, he blended all the pieces together into a finished landscape.

The Legacy of the Hudson River School

By the late 1800s, the popularity of the Hudson River School style of painting began to fade. Some critics dismissed the style as “historic” and praised the newer ideas ushered in by the Barbizon School and the American Impressionists. However, the Hudson River School artists left a lasting impression on generations of painters who came after them. Later artists have recognized the Hudson River School’s enormous contribution to the development of American landscape painting.

Many examples of the Hudson River School paintings can be seen in museums in New York, Washington D.C., and around the nation. Frederic Church’s former home, known as Olana State Historic Park, offers tours of his estate and a museum. The museum displays both Church’s art and the work of contemporary artists that were inspired by the Hudson River School.

Olana State Historic Park https://www.olana.org/

Fans of the Hudson River School can also visit Thomas Cole’s home and art studio at The Thomas Cole National Historic Site in Catskill, NY, where his paintings and sketches are on display. This site also sponsors The Hudson River School Art Trail, a series of hiking and paddling excursions where participants can experience first-hand views of the glorious landscapes that were the inspiration of the Hudson River School paintings.

Thomas Cole National Historic Site https://thomascole.org/

The Hudson River School Art Trail https://thomascole.org/hudson-river-school-art-trail-guided-hikes/