Frederick Church and the Hudson River School Olana

Frederick Church and the Hudson River School Olana State Historic Site

Hudson River School- group of artists whose aesthetic vision was influenced by Romanticism. Their paintings depict the Hudson River Valley and the surrounding area, as well as the Catskill Mountains, Adirondack Mountains, and White Mountains of New Hampshire. Frederick Edwin Church, In the Andes, 1878

Hudson River School landscapes are characterized by their realistic, detailed, and sometimes idealized portrayal of nature. In general, Hudson River School artists believed that nature in the form of the American landscape was an ineffable manifestation of God, though the artists varied in the depth of their religious conviction

Connecting nature to religion: The progression of time through a single day becomes a metaphor for the life cycle of man. Birth-sunrise, Death-sunset/night, rebirth- recurrence of dawn. Hudson River School artists were very aware of this symbolism. These cycles can be used to illustrate the Christian promise of rebirth. John Frederick Kensett (1818 -1872), Sunset over the Catskills, 1855, oil on canvas

Weather – a force greater than man “The sky is the soul of all scenery, in it are the fountains of light, and shade, and color. Whatever expression the sky takes, the features of the landscape are affected in unison, weather it be the serenity of summer’s blue, or the dark tumult of the storm. ” –Thomas Cole Arthur Parton (1842 -1914, On the Hudson, 1879, Oil on canvas

Frederick E. Church Twilight in the Wilderness

Frederick E. Church, Falls of Niagara, 1857

Frederick E. Church

Frederick E. Church

Man’s impact on nature: HRS artists were increasingly troubled by the permanent mark that man was making on the American landscape. Frederick E. Church

Alvan Fisher (1792 -1863), Fishing in New Hampshire, 1852, oil on canvas Charles W. Knapp (1823 -1900), Artist Sketching, oil on canvas

The Hudson River school artists, particularly in the early period, utilized a *Burkean concept of the sublime which emphasized the apocalyptic and catastrophic in nature-volcanoes, waterfalls, earthquakes, and storms. Fear and awe were appropriate responses to these catastrophic or dramatic events. This rather Gothic perspective on the sublime was exemplified in the Hudson River school's use of threatening nimbus and cumulus clouds in an approaching storm or a brilliant sunset. The Hudson River school paintings evoked a sense of overwhelming awe, accented by the monumental scale of these works--as much as ten feet across. This concept of the sublime could be called "Christianized" in that it implied human insignificance in the face of an omnipotent, holy God. Steve W. Lemke *Edmund Burke - 1729– 97 - author, orator, political theorist, and philosopher – Wrote “A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful”

William Sanford Mason (1824 -1864), View of Columbia, 1855. , oil on canvas

Gustavus Johann Grunewald , Winter Fishing on a Lake at the Pine Swamp, 1856, oil on canvas Thomas Worthington Whittredge (1820 -1910), Deer by a Waterfall, 1850, oil on canvas

Assignment: • You will have 3 hours (ish) at Olana to create your own landscape. • You may draw or paint. (You must prep that ahead of time. ) • Consider the time frame and your individual working speed when choosing materials. • This piece will be a portfolio piece. If you do not finish it in the allotted time, be sure that you make note of the conditions and the things you need to finish so that you can work on it at a later date. • You do not have to make a HRS replica, but consider their point of view and style when you are working. • Create an interesting composition and remember atmospheric perspective. • Due for critique: A day - May 21, 2019 B day – May 22, 2019

Watercolor

Oil Pastel

Ink and Watercolor

Pencil Pen and Ink

Colored Pencil Chalk Pastel