Different Views in Hudson River School Painting

by Judith Hansen O'Toole

Overview

Hudson River School artists shared an awe of the magnificence of nature as well as a belief that the untamed American scenery reflected the national character.

In this new work, color reproductions of more than 115 paintings capture the beauty and illuminate the aesthetic and philosophical principles of the Hudson River School painters. The pieces included in this volume reflect a period (1825-1875) when American landscape painting was most thoroughly explored and formalized with personal, artistic, cultural, and national identifications. Judith Hansen O'Toole reveals the subtleties and quiet majesty of the works and discusses their shared iconography, the ways in which artists responded to one another's paintings, and how the paintings reflected nineteenth-century American cultural, intellectual, and social milieus.

Different Views is also the first major study to examine closely the Hudson River School artists' practice of creating thematically related pairs and series of paintings. O'Toole considers painters' use of this method to express different moods and philosophical concepts. She observes artists' representations of landscape and their nuanced depictions of weather, light, and season. By comparing and contrasting Hudson River School paintings, O'Toole reveals differences in meaning, emotion, and cultural connotation.

Different Views in Hudson River School Painting contains reproductions of works from a range of prominent and lesser-known artists, including Jasper Francis Cropsey, Sanford Robinson Gifford, Asher B. Durgaand, Frederic Edwin Church, Albert Bierstadt, John Frederic Kensett, and John William Casilear. The works come from a leading private collection and were recently exhibited at the Westmoreland Museum of American Art.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780231138215
Publisher:	Columbia University Press
Publication date:	06/20/2008
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	160
Product dimensions:	9.40(w) x 10.90(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Judith Hansen O'Toole is director and CEO of the Westmoreland Museum of American Art in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, and the author of a book on the nineteenth-century still-life painter Severin Roesen.

Published in association with Westmoreland Museum of American Art.

Table of Contents

Preface
Introduction
American Scenery
Different Views
I. Introductory Pair: Cole and Church
II. Times of Day
III. Weather Conditions, Atmosphere, and Mood
IV. Seasons
V.Nature without Man
VI. Man's Activities in Nature: Pleasure
VII. Man's Impact on Nature: The Machine in the Garden
VIII. Interpretations of the Same Scene by Different Artists
IX. Samplers
Endnotes
Selected Bibliography
List of Paintings
Acknowledgments

What People are Saying About This

W. Douglas McCombs

Different Views in Hudson River School Painting is a study of significant importance that enriches our comprehension of a nineteenth-century mindset. It permits twenty-first-century viewers entry into a world that often eludes our untrained eyes.

— W. Douglas McCombs, Albany Institute of History and Art

Editorial Reviews

An expansive and beautifully presented anthology of the art and the artists who pioneered the first native style of American landscape painting...A perfect edition to personal, academic, and community library Art History collections, Different Views in Hudson River School Painting is very highly recommended and informative reading.

The Midwest Book Review - Michael J. Carson

An expansive and beautifully presented anthology of the art and the artists who pioneered the first native style of American landscape painting...A perfect edition to personal, academic, and community library Art History collections, Different Views in Hudson River School Painting is very highly recommended and informative reading.

— Michael J. Carson

The Midwest Book Review