Taking in the Views That Led to Great Art [1800s Hudson River School of landscape painting-PHOTOS]

New York Times ^ | October 9, 2009 | BENJAMIN GENOCCHIO

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From the North Lake Beach parking area in the Catskill Forest Preserve, a narrow foot trail climbs a rocky incline. After following the trail for about 20 minutes, hikers reach Artists Rock, which gives a sweeping view of the Hudson Valley, the river a sliver of silver in the distance. The trail then leaves the ledge and in less than a half mile it meets a junction with a side trail toward Sunset Rock, the prized view from atop North Mountain that by the late 19th century had become an iconic view of the northern Catskills, celebrated in the work of the Hudson River School painters.

Thomas Cole, the English-born founder of the Hudson River School, made his first sketching trip in the Catskills in the 1820s. The paintings that followed created a sensation in the New York art world, and a host of other talented young American painters soon joined Cole in the Catskills. Their influential paintings include scenic views of the natural wilderness from Sunset Rock, one of the sites on the Hudson River School Art Trail, a route that can be followed, with the help of a brochure, to sites that inspired some of America’s first great art.

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INSPIRATIONS North-South Lake in the Catskill Forest Preserve
is a starting point for a tour of the landscapes painted by members
of the Hudson River School, including Sunset Rock.

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“A View of Two Lakes and Mountain House,” a painting by Thomas Cole
that was inspired by the river valley.
-Brooklyn Museum

“Lake With Dead Trees,” also by Thomas Cole.
-Allen Memorial Art Museum

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/11/nyregion/11artwe.html?_r=1&ref=nyregion

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Other members of the "School" included Frederic Edwin Church, Asher B. Durand and Albert Bierstadt. The School eventually expanded beyond the Hudson River Valley of New York State.

Frederic Edwin Church, Landscape in the Adirondacks [NY State]

http://www.paintinghere.com/painting/Landscape_in_the_Adirondacks_723.html
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Frederic Edwin Church, Twilight in the Wilderness

Frederic Edwin Church Paintings (9 shown):
http://www.paintinghere.com/artist/Frederic_Edwin_Church-1.html
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In the Woods, 1855
Asher B. Durand (American, 1796–1886)
Oil on canvas; 60 3/4 x 48 in. (154.3 x 121.9 cm)
Gift in memory of Jonathan Sturges by his children, 1895 (95.13.1)
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/hurs/ho_95.13.1.htm
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The Rocky Mountains: Lander's Peak, Albert Bierstadt, 1863
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Yosemite Valley, Albert Bierstadt (American, 1830 - 1902) 1866
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Sunset in the Yosemite Valley, Bierstadt, Albert, 1868

Storm in the Rocky Mountains (Mount Rosa), Albert Bierstadt, 1886
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Albert Bierstadt, Among the Sierra Nevada Mountains, California

http://www.allpaintings.org/v/Hudson+River+School/Albert+Bierstadt/Albert+Bierstadt+-+Among+the+Sierra+Nevada+Mountains_+California.jpg.html
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Among the Bernese Alps by Albert Bierstadt

http://www.1st-art-gallery.com/Albert-Bierstadt/Among-The-Bernese-Alps.html

Heart of the Andes, Frederic Edwin Church 1859, Metropolitan Museum of Art
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Mountains of Ecuador, Frederic Edwin Church

[JoeProBono]

NICE POST!

[ETL]

NICE POST!

Tanx (blushing)

[kalee]

bttt

[alicewonders]

W.O.W.

[Uncle Chip]

Thanks — those are spectacular.

[Ditter]

Thanks for the art. Beautiful paintings are always appreciated.

[FrdmLvr]

Beautiful paintings and prints, ETL. Love the Hudson River School painters.

[Wonderama Mama]

beautiful! thanks for posting.

[ETL]

Kaaterskill Falls is a must-see if you're ever in the area of North Lake in the Catskill Mountains of New York. It's a mile or so from the lake, and there are two spectacular views of it, one from the top, the other from beneath, following a beautiful but slightly challenging creek-side hike. Dying to go back up there again! It's been a few years. The geology is equally fascinating, at least to people like me who are into that sort of thing.

"Kaaterskill Falls is a two-drop waterfall located near in the eastern Catskill Mountains of New York, on the north side of Kaaterskill Clove, between the hamlets of Haines Falls and Palenville in Greene County's Town of Hunter. The dual cascades total 260 feet (79 m) in height, making it one of the higher waterfalls in New York, and one of the Eastern United States' taller waterfalls.

The falls are one of America's oldest tourist attractions, with it appearing in some of the most prominent books, essays, poems and paintings of the early 19th century. Long before Alexis de Tocqueville's famous essay on America, Kaaterskill Falls was lauded as a place where a traveler could see a wilder image, a sort of primieval Eden. Beginning with Thomas Cole's first visit in 1825, they became an icon subject for painters of the Hudson River School, setting the wilderness ideal for American landscape painting. The Falls also inspired "Catterskill Falls", a poem by William Cullen Bryant."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaaterskill_Falls

[Judith Anne]

Truly beautiful.

[Dudoight]

Enjoyed very much...thanks.

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"Kindred Spirits (1849) is perhaps the best known painting of Hudson River School painter Asher Durand. It depicts the recently deceased painter Thomas Cole and his friend the poet William Cullen Bryant in the Catskill Mountains. The landscape, which combines geographical features like Fawns Leap [1] in Kaaterksill Clove and a minuscule depiction of Kaaterskill Falls, is not a literal record of a particular site but an idealized memory of Thomas Cole's discovery of the region more than twenty years prior to the canvas's execution."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kindred_Spirits_%28painting%29

[MHGinTN]

Stunning ...

[Little Pig]

Don't forget Thomas Moran. These artists brought the unsettled west back to the cities of the east, providing a large part of the impetus to move west.

[ETL]

Incredible! Thanks!

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From Wikipedia...

Links to individual artists, plus more about the Hudson River School of landscape painting, here:
(the above is just a screen shot of the section)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hudson_River_School

[Little Pig]

This is one of my favorite Bierstadts. I love the space implicit in the painting: