Posted on 12/26/2018 3:34:03 PM PST by Rebelbase
Thomas Cole is known primarily as the father of the Hudson River School of landscape painting. Cole enjoyed the patronage of several prominent businessmen in New York City, and they would have been particularly interested in his depictions of the seemingly limitless resources of the country’s interior—the profusion of timber and the extensive network of rivers and lakes that would enable them to make their fortunes. They believed that settlement of the land would have nothing but beneficial effects.
It is Cole’s skill as an artist that enables him both to create an image that would both appeal to his patrons in its depiction of abundant resources and express his own concern about the effects of settlement on the land. In Cole’s Home in the Woods, a father returns home to the family cabin in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, bringing with him a fresh catch that will serve as the family’s dinner. The family has cleared the land themselves—the chopped-down trees and sawn logs are prominent in the foreground of the painting. And it is through this detail that Cole reveals his stance on the settlement of unspoiled land in the country’s interior. In his 1836 “Essay on American Scenery,” Cole lamented the “ravages of the axe” that were destroying the wilderness as early as the 1830s.
In Home in the Woods, the ravages of the axe are prominently represented in the foreground. The artist clearly contrasts the area around the cabin, shorn of trees and littered with the family’s belongings, with the pristine mountains in the background. He seems to warn the viewer that, as more and more people arrive, these unspoiled places will disappear.
Home in the Woods was commissioned by the American Art-Union, a subscription society founded by a group of New York businessmen in 1840. The goal of this organization was to educate and enlighten American citizens by exposing them to fine art. Members of the union joined by paying five dollars per year, for which they received minutes of annual meetings, a print based on a work of fine art, and a lottery ticket which put them in the running to win a work of original art. In 1847, the American Art-Union commissioned Thomas Cole to produce a work for addition to their catalogue. At the annual meeting that year, George Dwight of Springfield, Massachusetts, won Home in the Woods by lottery.
But where’s the diversity?
I guess ‘Dogs playing poker’ wouldn’t be appreciated in this thread.....
:-)
It’s the hair.
I don't think the original did or does look like that, although I understand why you would think it did. You probably used "auto tone" and "auto color" which adjusted the levels. That's reasonable, assuming Cole did not intend to produce a certain mood with unbalanced tones.
I am very familiar with Cole's paintings "The Voyage of Life" at the National Gallery of Art. Their dramatic and moody tone and their hues very closely resembles the first illustration and not at all yours. What's more, look at the magenta noise in the blue sky and clouds of your retouching. That's what often happens when PhotoShop tries to remove an aged varnish from an old painting through level adjustment, you get disbursed brown, yellow or magenta noise.
You can draw a straight line from the Hudson Valley School, Cole, and especially Bierstadt, to Ansel Adams and how many modern landscape photographers he inspired. Timothy H. O'Sullivan worked for Alexander Gardner during the Civil War, and took some of its most memorable photographs, including "The Harvest of Death", and "Dead Confederate Sharpshooter", both from the Battle of Gettysburg. After the war, he heroically lugged his view cameras, one as large as 20"x24", with wet glass colodian plates, through the American West. O'Sullivan's photographs were influenced by the Hudson Valley School, and some of his compositions were straight from Bierstadt. Adams (at least it seems to me) was again copying O'Sullivan in terms of subject and composition, but he was using materials and techniques which allowed him to closely replicate some of the dramatic Hudson Valley School lighting effects in Black & White.
Ping
I guess he wouldn't be happy with one of these babies, then.
It's odd the way Michelangelo hid colors and details no one would see in dark shadows.
Check out Vermeer’s “Girl With a Pearl Earring” before and after its 1994 restoration. I am not entirely sure which I like better, before or after.
This era of landscape paintings had a significant effect on people in the eastern US. One effect was the beginning of creating national parks to preserve the beauty of the west.
Mine is my mothers painting
People stood in line for hours to see that painting.
I like Frederick Church, but I am not certain it is my favorite. (Or, It may be my favorite until I See a new favorite painting further down the wall!)
Your’s carries with it recollections of your mother and that is not a bad favorite to have.
And paid 25 Cents to see it! Unlike a lot of artists Church was sucessful and lived comfortably, and a lot of that had to do this this painting.
That and the fact she was really good. I do love the next painting further down the wall too.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.