The Metropolitan Museum of Art

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19th CENTURY AMERICAN LANDSCAPE Queens County Art and Cultural Center November 10-December 10,1972 The Metropolitan Museum of Art January—February 1973 Memorial Art Gallery of The University of Rochester- March-April 1973

An exhibition from The Metropolitan Museum of Art made possible by grants from the New York State Council on the Arts and the National Endowment on the Arts. I>t is indeed a great selected the paintings, wrote the introduc­ honor for the Metropolitan Museum of tion and prepared the catalogue entries Art to initiate the Queens County Art with the help of Assistant Curators and Cultural Center with the exhibition, Natalie Spassky and Lewis Sharp, as well Nineteenth Century American as Janet Miller, Departmental Secretary. Landscape. Congratulations to Borough Special thanks go to Edward Bloodgood, President Donald R. Manes; Parks, Roland Brand and Sandy Canzoneri Recreation and Cultural Affairs for installing the exhibition. The Administrator August Heckscher; Com­ catalogue was designed by John Murello missioner of Cultural Affairs, Phyllis in cooperation with Stuart Silver, Robinson, the staff of the Cultural Administrator of the Museum's Design Center, and the many Queens residents Department. Bret Waller, Museum who have worked so long and hard to Educator in charge of Public Education, achieve this moment. I sincerely, hope assisted in the production of the catalogue that this will prove an auspicious and in providing the liaison with beginning, and that many fine exhibitions Rochester. Among the countless other and programs will follow. 'unsung heros' are those in the Registrar's Nineteenth Century Office responsible for all packing and American Landscape has been coordi­ shipping arrangements, and in the nated by the Department of Community Security Department providing the excel­ Programs and made possible by grants lent guardianship at the Queens County from the New York State Council on the Art and Cultural Center. Arts and National Endowment on the Last but not least, our development of exhibitions for commu­ thanks to Mr. Sanford Agnew for the nity museums in that the exhibit will be loan of his painting. shown at the Metropolitan and then at the University of Rochester Memorial Art Gallery after its inaugural month in Thomas Hoving Queens. Director Few people outside the museum profession realize that this kind of exhibition represents the combined efforts of a great number of departments and many individuals, some of whom should be thanked specifically. The entire Department of American Paintings and Sculpture has contributed to this ri exhibition: John K. Howat, Curator, and Mary Davis, Research Assistant, r-4 »merican land­ landscape painting in America was a occupy the major part of this exhibition, scape paintingJ\, which enjoyed its first matter of small artistic import since what is the Hudson River School. Due to its and most telling growth in the Nine­ few artists there were usually contrived remarkable vitality and longevity over a teenth Century, was a convincing to make a living by painting portraits, period of several decades, it is the most reflection of the primeval and fresh signs, coaches and other decorative items. singularly influential style of the century. aspect of our burgeoning country. The Certainly landscapes were produced by The label "Hudson River country was youthful and confident, its artists, but in limited numbers and most School" was created by an unfriendly attention fixed on the distant horizons often as watercolor or penciled topo­ critic from the New York Herald, who and on the frontier lands that promised graphical views which were translated apparently found the subject matter and both prosperity and spacious freedom. into prints. Out of such printed sources style of the Hudson River artists The citizens of this young came much of the impulse for the style, somewhat provincial. The label lost its America, with religious intent, saw the and content of academic and folk land- pejorative meaning in the artists' own hand of God in every aspect of their lives, scapists who worked during the first half day, but it has always been misleading, whether it be by guiding their efforts or of the nineteenth century. It should be since it implies that these artists painted in providing nature's plenty. The artists noted despite the existence of these nothing but the Hudson River. The who made their livelihood depicting the printed sources that American naive Hudson River did provide continuing nation's mountains, valleys, rivers, trees, painters did not develop a consistent inspiration for Thomas Cole, Thomas and weather did so with the conviction group style since their work was unaca- Doughty, Jasper F. Crospey, Sanford R. that they performed a patriotic, religious demic, individual, often anonymous, and Gifford, Asher B. Durand, John F. and artistic service for the nation. Thomas was grounded in a craft, not painter's, Kensett, David Johnson, George Inness, Cole, the "founder" of the Hudson River tradition. The stylistic personalities of Frederic Church, Albert Bierstadt and School, wrote enthusiastically that "the these artists varied, but they shared an many others. Yet all of these artists painter of American scenery has, indeed, untrained and often brilliant eye. The traveled widely throughout the North­ privileges superior to any other. All simplicity of the folk artist's vision eastern United States, the West, the nature here is new to art. No Tivolis, combined mental images with familiar South, and abroad searching for subject Turins, Mont Blancs, Plinlimmons, hack­ visual images to produce the formalized, matter. neyed and worn by the daily pencils of two-dimensional subjects such as seen in The Hudson River School hundreds; but primeval forests, virgin several landscapes in this exhibition, encompassed artists with varied careers, lakes and waterfalls, feasting his eye with The Plantation, View of the Schuylkill but they shared a taste for romantic new delights, and filling his portfolio County Almshouse Property, and View of naturalism and common desire to gener­ with their features of beauty and magnifi­ Poestenskill, New York. All three views ate a public interest in arts in this country. cence, hallowed to his soil, by their were intended as literal descriptions of Writers like William Cullen Bryant, freshness from the creation, for his own locally notable places, but they are Washington Irving, and James Fenimore favored pencil." Cole's and his followers' schematized and map-like, yet possessing Cooper were sympathetic and vitally landscapes were admired and purchased design and decorative qualities which are important to this effort. New York City by patrons and amateurs of the arts who quite sophisticated and appealing. was rapidly growing as a commercial and fully agreed with this conviction. The other native type of cultural capital, and its newly rich Previous to the develop­ landscape painting, one based on business class made it a logical center ment of the Hudson River School, academic training, and the one which will for patronage of the arts.

185808 The date for the beginning canvas, it was done with the conviction applied to canvases varying from postcard of the school is accepted as 1825, when that the basic quality of nature was to wall size. At the height of his popu­ three landscapes by Thomas Cole were thereby more accurately expressed. This larity Church specialized in panoramic discovered in the window of a New approach did not preclude a beautifully views of the Andean landscape to which York picture framer by several leading luxurious use of paint, as a glance at he had been led by appreciative reading in connoisseurs. Thomas Doughty also is Durand's River Scene, Cropsey's Wyo­ Alexander von Humboldt's writings on considered a father of the Hudson River ming Valley, Pennsylvania, or Johnson's South America. The novel subject matter, School, due to his early production of Near Squam Lake, New Hampshire size, and dramatic presentation of gently atmospheric views of the North­ will show. Church's works guaranteed their tempo­ eastern United States. The impetus these The followers, and con­ rary acclamation, but when the public two painters provided for an indigenous temporary colleagues of Durand are tired of the novelty, they rejected them American landscape style was colored by commonly called the "Second Genera­ despite the vision and gifted handling dis­ noticeable European influences. Cole pro­ tion" of the Hudson River School, and it played by Church. Bierstadt's successes duced historical and religious allegories is they who created the majority of the during the 1860's and 1870's, like in landscape form which derive from myriad 19th Century American land­ Church's were on a scale to match the Italian 18th and 19th Century models, scapes which survive to this day. These grandeur of their finished pictures: both and Doughty imitated the idealized, artists, most of whom were active in the were remarkable. Bierstadt explored and humid views of Claude Lorrain and New York City art world, thrived on their depicted the little known marvels of the Joseph Vernet. The bulk of Cole's and diet of regular travel here and abroad in Rocky Mountains and the far west, and Doughty's work, however, revolves search of the picturesque. Artistically, made occasional forays into the European around their deep romantic attachment they shared certain aims, in particular the countyside. In his giant views, Bierstadt to the American landscape, rather than to desire to depict the various moods, combined minute detail and panoramic any dedication to previous example. appearances and scintillation of light. breadth, bringing both to an almost Thomas Cole died in 1848 Sanford Gifford, John Kensett, Martin oppressive ultimate development. The and the mantle of leadership passed to Johnson Heade, Worthington Whittredge, pictures came to be seen as being too Asher B. Durand who had come upon Frederick Church, and Albert Bierstadt much, an artistic surfeit which the landscape painting via engraving, often differ in the scale and mood of their American art public of the 1880's found portrait, and genre painting during the pictures, but their common interest in distasteful. 1820's and 1830's. Durand, in accord with realistic and close analysis of light brings Every successful art move­ the ideals of American Transcendental­ them together under the label ment has in itself the seeds of dissolution. ism, painted his reverence for nature in "luminists." Worthington Whittredge and George the most minute and dedicated fashion. In The Hudson River style Inness, though both Hudson River order to be faithful to God and nature, reached a denouement of sorts in the artists, diverged from the tight realism of Durand and his followers (who were work of Frederic E. Church and Albert the style later in their careers. They numerous) rendered each detail of land­ Bierstadt. Church and Bierstadt were the discovered the Barbizon School of land­ scape, from the foreground pebble to the best known of the "artist-explorers" scape painting during their respective most distant cloud, with stunning exacti­ within the school. Church, Cole's travels in France, and both yielded to the tude. When the details of any scene were astounding pupil, was a master of de­ freer, more opulent use of paint in the shifted for pictorial reasons on the tailed, sensuous painting which he work of Corot, Rousseau, and Daubigny. Whittredge was especially attracted to changed markedly. where one did not exist. Artists turned to the paysage intime, the quiet contained Woods interiors, cottage the land itself, the raw material of the view of a forest interior. Inness is particu­ scenes, pictures of people at work in the new nation, for their subject matter. The larly recognized as the prophet of the countryside, moody studies of twilight, forests and valleys of the East and the Barbizon School in America due to his and later, city subjects replaced the broad mountains and plains of the West writings and his broadly executed visions unpopulated vistas of the Hudson River provided them with inspiration for the of mist and light. School pictures. Concurrently, the earlier first half of the century. The attraction of The disaster of the Civil passion for detail and faithful duplication Europe, with its established artistic War (1861-1865) marred the country's of nature in paint was replaced by the traditions, nurtured American artists and enthusiasm and tarnished its self-image. artists' desire for dashing and rich use of offered them a continuing basis of Whether the war contributed to a change color and paint texture. Paint was con­ comparison for their work, but they con­ in art is questionable, yet, after it ended sidered beautiful in its own right. The sistently returned to the American land­ a shift in artistic taste occurred. For one artists broadened their brushstrokes, and scape for the substance of their visions. thing, a new generation of artists ap­ made them visible on the surface of the peared, and they reacted in a predictable canvas, instead of attempting to obliterate fashion against the "tradition" of Ameri­ any evidence of them. Stylistic change Mary Davis can landscape painting, the Hudson resulted from an increasing technical Research Assistant, Department of River School. They declared its realism sophistication, but it also answered the American Paintings and Sculpture excessive, and looked to Europe for artists' need for more personal expression. John K. Howat new directions. The artist in effect asserted himself, Curator, Department of In the last half of the claiming an equal role with the subject American Paintings and Sculpture century, Winslow Homer, John Singer matter as a performer on canvas. Sargent, John Twachtmart, and Childe The American preoccupa­ Hassam, among others, studied or at least tion with landscape painting in the looked at art in Paris, which had become nineteenth century is not surprising. The the international center of contemporary Hudson River style was the result of a art. Many American artists were in Paris will to create a native artistic tradition during the yeasty years of Courbet, Manet, and the Impressionists, but they were usually drawn to the established conservative art schools: the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and the Academie Julian, which taught more academic, conven­ tional styles. Despite the conventional instruction received by these Americans in Paris, it was almost wholly due to French influences during the last quarter of the century that the subject matter and style of American landscape painting THE PLANTATION (c. 1825) VIEW OF POESTENSKILL, NEW YORK VIEW OF THE SCHUYLKILL COUNTY (1855) ALMSHOUSE PROPERTY (1876) American Painter, Unknown Oil on wood, 19Vs x 29V2 inches Joseph H. Hidley (1830-1872) Charles C. Hofmann (1820-1882) Gift of Edgar William and Oil on wood, 20 x 28 inches Oil on canvas, 283A x 38% inches Bernice Chrysler Garbisch, 63.201.3 Gift of Edgar William and Gift of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch, 63.201.5 Bernice Chrysler Garbisch, 66.242.26 The artist of The Plantation is anony­ mous. Many American naive artists were Hidley spent his life in Poestenskill, New Charles C. Hofmann was born in itinerant book illuminators. Others were York, and in the neighboring town of Germany and immigrated to the United sign painters, coach painters or house Troy. He was an active taxidermist as States in 1860. From 1861 to 1881 he decorators. This picture is painted in a well as a painter. Besides painting views painted views of the public poorhouses style which imitates the general of New York towns Hidley made shadow- in Berks County, Montgomery County, appearance of a piece of embroidery or box pictures and decorated wooden and Schuylkill County. A poor man, needlework design. Used as picture whatnots. His early pictures are truly Hofmann committed himself to the Berks to hang over a mantle, The Plantation naive, while his later pictures like View County Almshouse on October 26,1872. also may have been based on a wall­ of Poestenskill, New York demonstrate He lived there until he died on March 1, paper design. an elemental understanding of 1882. He was buried in an unmarked The actual site of the plantation has perspective. pauper's grave. not been identified. It does not specifically Hidley painted many views of his home Hofmann stands between The resemble any architectural complex in town at different times of the year. This Plantation artist's extreme naivete and Virginia or the Carolinas in the eighteenth seems to be a summer scene, yet the the more technically accomplished century. The view is probably imaginary. image of the town is timeless. The view is Hidley. Hofmann carefully maps out the The Plantation is a composite scene, painted from a high vantage point, which buildings and property belonging to made up of separately conceived units spreads the town out like a map. the almshouse and adds horses, coaches which the artist combined in a single and people to the scene. The artist mental image. further describes the rules of the alms­ house on a signboard in the center of the picture, which reads: Notice/Positively no Admittance on Sunday/ Visitors to the Almshouse will/ be admitted only on Thursday of/ each week At the very bottom Hofmann inscribed the name of the almshouse and the date of the painting. A RIVER GLIMPSE (c. 1830-1840)*

Thomas Doughty (1793-1856) Oil on canvas, 30V4 x 25 inches Gift of Samuel P. Avery, 95.17.2

Doughty belongs to the first generation of American artists who turned their attention fully to landscape painting. After spending his early years appren­ ticed to a leather currier, he decided to become an artist at the age of 27 or 28. Though he was self-taught, he accepted orders for paintings within a few years. In 1824 he became a member of the Pennsylvania Academy and an Honorary Member of the National Academy in 1827. Doughty quickly established a reputation for pictures of quiet New England scenery, and exhibited his work in New York, Boston, Philadelphia and Baltimore, as well as in European galleries. Doughty's early landscapes were topo­ graphical views, or accurate description sition according to a formula that of particular places. Topographical land­ is common to many of his landscapes. It is scapes were desired by patrons who a type of pastoral scene, next to a lake THE MOUNTAIN FORD (1846) wished to display views of their estates as or river, bordered by low mountains or symbols of their wealth. After traveling rolling hills in the background and large Thomas Cole (1801-1848) in England in 1837-38, he painted more clumps of trees in the foreground. His Oil on canvas, 28V4 x 40-1/16 inches idealized landscapes which were appreci­ style earned him the title "the all- Bequest of Maria DeWitt Jesup, 15.30.63 ated by contemporary critics for their American Claude Lorrain." Besides spirit of quiet and melancholy. Thomas Cole, Doughty is the most im­ Thomas Cole was born at Bolton-le-Moor, A River Glimpse contains more portant figure of landscape painting Lancashire, England, and after an ap­ imaginative elements than topography. at the time of the emergence of the prenticeship as an engraver and calico de­ While Doughty may be referring to Hudson River School. signer, he came to the United States a specific place, he arranges the compo­ with his parents in 1819. After a peripa- RIVER SCENE (1854)

Asher B. Durand (1796-1886) Oil on canvas, 24 x 34Vs inches Bequest of Mary Starr Van Winkle, 1970.58

Durand was born in New Jersey and learned the craft of engraving there and in New York City. He became the nation's leading engraver of cards, banknotes, maps, and prints, and was successful as a portrait painter during the 1820's and 1830's before he gave these up for land­ scape painting in 1837. Durand, resplendant in a voluminous beard, was the father figure and leader of the Second Generation of the Hudson River School. His published theories on landscape painting were the "Bible" for the mid-century landscapists. Despite his oft-stated rejection of European tetic existence as an engraver, wallpaper he was near his beloved Catskill models in his work, Durand relied strongly designer, and portraitist in Pennsylvania Mountains. Thereafter, he concentrated on the realistic Dutch and English and Ohio, Cole discovered the landscapes on painting the stormy wilds of the landscape tradition for work such as this of Thomas Doughty and Thomas Birch Catskills, Adirondacks, and White Moun­ picture. Durand usually devoted his on exhibition in Philadelphia, which tains, interspersed with two extended talents to the close rendering of fore­ persuaded him to take up landscape paint­ painting trips to Europe. The Mountain ground detail, as well as to painting the ing as a career. Three of his landscapes Ford is probably based on sketches green and golden glow of the country were discovered in 1825 by William made on trips to the Genesee Valley in atmosphere as seen in this picture. The Dunlap, Asher B. Durand (then the lead­ 1839 and to the Adirondacks in 1846. The view looks from the eastern shore of the ing engraver in New York), and John picture which captures the craggy and Hudson River north across Peekskill Trumbull. At this point Cole assumed the wild aspect of the unspoiled mountains Bay to the Hudson Highlands beyond. role of the leading landscape painter in was, according to a contemporary art New York, and in the United States. magazine, "Cole's best picture (to our He left New York City to settle in Catskill, mind, and by his own declaration)." New York, on the Hudson River, where father and his uncle Alfred Daggett, and Kensett was the most outstanding worked in the trade for years, painting member of the second generation PASSING OFF OF THE STORM gradually became his major interest. After of Hudson River artists. As a group (c. 1872) moving to New York, Kensett became they sought to create a national style of acquainted with a group of engravers and painting, which proudly took its John F. Kensett (1816-1872) 3 painters associated with Asher B. Durand, inspiration from the local American Oil on canvas, ll /s x 24V2 inches the spiritual leader of the Hudson River landscape instead of the history-saturated Gift of Thomas Kensett, 74.27 school. Convinced that the "grand tour" terrain of Europe. Kensett worked in the was necessary for a proper artistic Catskills, Adirondacks and Berkshires, training, Kensett traveled through Europe and along the coasts of Massachusetts 8 in 1840 with Asher B. Durand, John and Connecticut. A FOGGY SKY (c. 1872) Casilear, and Thomas Rossiter. His long A Foggy Sky, Passing off of the Storm, stays in Paris, London and Rome, and Twilight on the Sound, Darien, John Frederick Kensett (1816-1872) where he studied and painted, were fruit­ Connecticut all belong to a group of pic­ Oil on canvas, 30V2 x 453/4 inches ful ones. His early landscapes of the tures which Kensett worked on in Gift of Thomas Kensett, 74.8 Alps and the Roman Campagna are filled 1872, the year of his death. Named the with genre details of people and last summer's work, these pictures animals. His later landscapes are unin­ are all in various stages of completion. habited, although they still reflect the In contrast to the grand landscapes clarity of style which he acquired in his of Bierstadt, these are modest, intimate TWILIGHT ON THE SOUND, early paintings. Kensett joined the views of nature, far smaller in scale, DARIEN, CONN. (c. 1872) colonies of American artists and writers and without a sense of melodrama. Their thriving in Paris and Rome. compositional formats are long and John Frederick Kensett (1816-1872) He began exhibiting his work upon horizontal, simply divided into general­ Oil on canvas, IIV2 x 24 Vz inches returning to New York in 1847, and en­ ized zones of sky and water. Gift of Thomas Kensett, 74.24 joyed the patronage of wealthy busi­ All three are variations on the theme of nessmen. Though he was not a gregarious silence in nature; Kensett has painted John Frederick Kensett was born in man, he became one of the leading peaceful, hushed times of day. He enjoyed Cheshire, Connecticut, the son of an figures in the New York art world. He painting the light of clear days and English emigrant engraver. Although he was a founder of the Metropolitan bright sunshine, yet these pictures share was trained as an engraver by his Museum and one of the original members a thicker atmosphere and a quality of of the Century Association, a club of serenity. The vision they reflect is truly artists and writers including Thomas Cole, personal. Asher B. Durand and William Cullen Bryant. 10 dramatic. These provided subjects for resist the temptation to improve on innumerable meadow landscapes. nature. As a result, his realistic style JERSEY MEADOWS (c. 1881) There is a strong naive element in never broke its attachment to idealization. Heade's work, which is evident in the Martin Johnson Heade (1819-1904) Cropsey made a second trip to Europe frontality and planarity of his composi­ Oil on canvas, 12V4 x 24 inches in 1856, settling in England for seven tions, as if he desired to fix rigidly and Gift of Thomas J. Watson, 45.53 years, where he exhibited several of forever the shapes of the haystacks on the his paintings. Born in Lumberville, Bucks County, meadow. In this light, his concern was In 1863, a year after his return to the Pennsylvania, Heade received his early art to create images of lasting imprint, rather United States, he painted this view of training from Thomas Hicks, a portrait than to render the transcience of Wyoming Valley in northeastern and landscape painter. From 1837-40 atmospheric effects. Pennsylvania, which is an oil sketch of a Heade studied art in England, France, and large work by the same title, commis­ Italy. For the next twenty years he sioned by Milton Courtwright, who was worked as a portrait and landscape painter 11 raised in the Wyoming Valley, in the East and Middle West. As well as Cropsey painted this as a topographical being an artist, Heade was a poet and WYOMING VALLEY, PENNSYLVANIA view. The valley is a rich panorama, (1864) naturalist, interests which took him on extending through the Pocono mountain range, with the Susquehanna winding extensive travels through South America, Jasper F. Cropsey (1823-1900) Florida, California, and British Columbia. down its middle, and Wilkes-Barre in the Oil on canvas, 15 x 24 inches distance. The large elm in the foreground Along with Kensett, Heade was a Bequest of Collis P. Huntington, 25.110.63 second generation member of the Hudson seems out of place in this broad, deep landscape, but Cropsey repeats the device River school and a luminist. The Cropsey spent the first years of his career marshes of New Jersey, Massachusetts, in the final version of the painting as an architect. After becoming an artist, (66.113). and Florida captured Heade's imagina­ he traveled to Europe, forewarned by tion, and he began painting marsh scenes American art critics not to submit to the with haystacks in the early 1860s. Jersey influences of the Old Masters. He Meadoios was painted about 1881, and studied in Rome where the history and was exhibited the same year at the nostalgia for the past profoundly affected Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. him. But when he returned to America, Like Monet in his paintings of haystacks, he had to find inspiration in the forests Heade was interested in representing the and valleys and New England. unusual effects of light on a single Cropsey was a member of the second subject. But Heade preferred two times generation of the Hudson River School, over all others—dawn and dusk, when the and he advocated a fidelity to nature sun is low and the colors of the sky are and attention to its details. Yet, due to his study with Thomas Cole, he could not 12 large and splendid palace of the Count made a living selling his own Borromeo, with gardens, terraces, "Barbizon" landscapes. Often imitating ISOLA BELLA IN LAGO MAGGIORE statues, grottos, etc." Yet, in the painting the style of Theodore Rousseau, one (1871) Gifford views the island from a great of the leaders of the French school, distance and emphasizes the haze over the Johnson earned the name "the American Sanford Robinson Gifford (1823-1880) mountains and water rather than the Rousseau." Living often as a recluse, Oil on canvas, 20V4 x 36 inches details of the island. The pink and gray Johnson died in 1908, one of the longest Gift of Colonel Charles A. Fowler, tones seem to dissolve the mountain lived members of the Hudson River 21.115.1 ranges and create the other-world lumi­ school. nosity of the scene. Gifford differed Gifford spent his early life in Hudson, Near Squam Lake, New Hampshire, from other Hudson River artists through New York. After two years at Brown dated 1856, precedes his interest of the his special interest in painting atmos­ University, he left to study painting at the 1870s in Barbizon painting, and directly phere and light. National Academy of Design in New reflects the influence of his early York. An excellent woodsman and fisher­ training with Cropsey. It is a peaceful, man, Gifford enjoyed the summers he panoramic vista, reminiscent of spent sketching in the Catskill and 13 Wyoming Valley. Adirondack mountains, where Worthing­ NEAR SQUAM LAKE, ton Whittredge and John F. Kensett, NEW HAMPSHIRE (1856) other Hudson River artists, also painted. He went abroad in 1856 and 1868 and David Johnson (1827-1908) recorded his experience in a journal writ­ Oil on canvas, 18-15/16 x 28 inches ten as a series of letters to his father. Rogers Fund, 17.110 The artist visited Lake Maggiore, the locale of this painting, during both Johnson was born and spent most of his trips, but the painting was probably done professional life in New York City. from sketches he made in August of Basically, he was self-taught, but he did 1868. It was his practice to make rapid study landscape painting with Jasper sketches on the spot from nature and F. Cropsey. A member of the first genera­ then complete the actual painting much tion of Hudson River artists, he made later in his studio. In 1856 Gifford sketching and painting trips to upstate described the island in Lake Maggiore, New York and New England. In 1849 he "On the famous Isola Bella is that exhibited his pictures at the National Academy of Design and the American Art Union, but his biggest success in New York came in the 1860s and 1870s. Although he never went abroad, he was familiar with the Barbizon school of landscape painting. Later in his career, he 14 dwindled, Church traveled widely in expedition to survey an overland wagon Europe, The Aegean, and the Mediter­ route into the Far West. In a letter COTOPAXI (1855) ranean, when he wasn't producing dated Rocky Mountains, July 10,1859, numerous beautiful sketches of the view he compared the two mountain ranges: Frederic E. Church (1826-1900) from his home—Olana on the Hudson "The mountains were very fine; as Oil on canvas, 47 x 31 inches River. Church's technical power, and seen from the plains, they resemble very Lent by Mr. Sanford Agnew, L 67.28 overwhelming sense of pictorial drama much the Bernese Alps.... They are have guaranteed his place as one of of a granite formation, the same as the Church, born in Hartford, Connecticut, America's finest artists. Swiss mountains and their jagged was Thomas Cole's only pupil. From Cole summits, covered with snow and mingling he learned to paint freely with great with the clouds, present a scene which technical brilliance, to use oil sketches as 15 every lover of landscape would gaze upon preparation for large finished canvases, with unqualified delight.. . ." and he also absorbed Cole's deeply reli­ SUNRISE ON THE MATTERHORN Along with Frederic Edwin Church, gious approach to the relationship (c. 1880) Bierstadt is both the culmination and the between nature and the artist. Church end of the Hudson River tradition of finished his studies with Cole in 1846 and Albert Bierstadt (1830-1902) 5 landscape painting, a style of realism quickly was established as one of New Oil on canvas, 58V2 x 42 /s inches which never relinquished its hold on York's most accomplished landscapists. Gift of Mrs. Karl Koeniger 66.114 romantic idealism. Bierstadt sought to awe He painted country scenes in the the viewer with the majesties of nature's Catskills, Upstate New York, the Green Bierstadt was born in Solingen, Germany, wonders. Here he has chosen a spectacular and White Mountains, Maine, as well but was brought up in New Bedford, mountain vista and documented it with as in the mid-west and South before visit­ Massachusetts. Although his parents dis­ photographic clarity. After the 1860s, ing South America for the first time in approved of his decision to become an artists lost interest in recording every de­ 1853. In 1855 he painted the first of his artist, at 23 he left for Dusseldorf, then an tail of nature with loving reverence, many views of Cotopaxi, the great conical active center of landscape painting led and they turned from documenting the volcano in Ecuador. Church's reputation by Karl Lessing. After three years of dramatic panoramas of Yosemite and as a painter-explorer of distant regions study, he traveled through Germany other wonders of the West toward a more was settled in 1859 by the public success and Switzerland in the summer of 1856. modest type of landscape. of his large The Heart of the Andes The original sketch for Sunrise on the (Metropolitan Museum of Art). In his Matterhorn was probably done at this later years after his popularity had time. The grandeur of the Alps impressed Bierstadt, and they were brought to his mind three years later when he first viewed the Rocky Mountains. In 1859 he joined Colonel Frederick Lander's Yosemite and made many sketches for later works. From 1867 to 1871 Hill lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he exhibited his first important picture, The Yosemite Valley, made popular to the public through chromo-lithograph repro­ ductions. Known as a California artist, Hill lived in San Francisco until his death in 1908. Bierstadt, Hill and their contemporary, William Keith, are the artists whose paintings most effectively introduced the public to the grandeur of Yosemite. This picture, dated 1885, is later than Hill's initial views of the park which he painted in the early 1860s. Although the scale and the subject of the picture link him with the tradition of Church and Bierstadt, Hill's style is looser and lacks the dry finish and polish of Sunrise on the Matterhorn. The fisherman casting off the rocks in the river is the only inhabitant of this landscape, but he is overwhelmed by the sheer power of the scenery sur­ 16 decorative painter in Boston and rounding him. Philadelphia. He spent a short time at YOSEMITE (1885) the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts in 1854, then he left for Paris, where Thomas Hill (1829-1908) he studied in the studio of Paul Oil on canvas, 36 x 54V4 inches Meyerheim, a German trained genre and Gift of Edna M. and Harold W. Lovell, landscape painter. After returning to 1971.245 the United States, he visited Yosemite in 1859 and again in 1861. Until 1867 he Thomas Hill was born in Birmingham, lived in California, where he painted England, and was brought to America by many of his grandiose pictures of his parents in 1841. He grew up in Massachusetts and began working as a 17 Surf on the Rocks is an oil sketch which "truly American landscape," and The Richards probably intended as a study Trout Pool bears a close relationship to SURF ON THE ROCKS for a larger canvas. The role of the oil Durand's oil sketches, which present sketch for some American artists was close-up views of forest interiors. In these William Trost Richards often dual. It was used as a preliminary 3 the details of streams, rocks and fallen Oil on millboard, 8 /4 xl4% inches study for watercolors as well as large trees are meticulously recorded. While Gift of Mrs. William T. Brewster, 32.73.2 oil paintings. Intrigued by the changeable Durand intended these only as exercises nature of the sea, Richards here studies in observation, Whittredge made this Richards was born in Philadelphia, and the mood of a storm which has ominously type of view a valid subject for finished learned to paint from a German artist from lowered the sky and darkened the painting. Whittredge belongs to the Dusseldorf. As a young man Richards water. The waves are chopped with foam second generation of Hudson River made two trips to Europe, once in 1853 and and break unevenly, in contrast to the artists, and the soft light and atmosphere again in 1866. Richards is most famous calm mood of the ocean, which is often of his work diverges from the extreme for his pictures of the sea. From 1870 to the subject of his other pictures. realism of the style initiated by 1878, he spent summers at Cape May Doughty, Cole and Durand. and Atlantic City, New Jersey, where he observed the sea closely and made 18 watercolor studies of waves. He built a summer home in Newport, Rhode THE TROUT POOL (c. 1868) Island, which allowed him to be near the ocean. Richards was fascinated by the Worthington Whittredge (1820-1910) seacoasts of Great Britain, and he made Oil on canvas, 36 x 27 inches trips to Ireland, Scotland, the Shet- Gift of Colonel Charles A. Fowler, lands and the Orkneys, and the Channel 21.115.4 Islands. A member of the National Academy of Design and the American Whittredge began as a portrait painter in Watercolor Society, Richards was Cincinnati. Landscape painting soon one of the American artists who, like eclipsed portaiture as his major interest, Homer and Eakins, made watercolor an and in 1849, he traveled through important medium in his art. Belgium and Germany, sketching along the Rhine. He was influenced by the Because of his obsession with detail and Barbizon and Dusseldorf schools of land­ his fine draughtsmanship, he was scape painting. After his return from identified with the Pre-Raphaelite ideas Europe, his work combined the tight, real­ of John Ruskin, whom he did admire. istic techniques of Dusseldorf and the This broadly painted sketch shows the soft-focus style of the Barbizon school. freedom of initial stages of his work, and seems to belie his Pre-Raphaelite In 1859 Whittredge settled in New tendencies. York. He made sketching excursions into the Catskills, where Durand had painted. He was impressed with Durand's 19 to select and synthesize elements of a Although the title of this work is no landscape and to omit details. Secondly, more specific than Near the Coast, it is AUTUMN OAKS (1875) he made the picture carry an expres­ probably a scene from an area often sion of an emotional or spiritual mood. painted by Gifford—the Massachusetts George Inness (1825-1894) His style broadened, and his colors coast, from New Bedford to Rhode Island Oil on canvas, 21 Vs x 30V4 inches became controlled by the time of day he Sound—a radius of about 25 miles. In fact, Gift of George I. Seney, 87.8.8 chose. Here, sunlight temporarily has it provided inspiration for so much of his broken through the clouds, illuminating work that it became known as "Gifford Inness was born in Newburg, New York. the rich gold and red colors of the Country." While based on a close study of He studied engraving in New York giant oaks. nature, Near the Coast is not a mere rec­ City, but he turned to landscape painting ord of a particular place. It is rather a in 1846. After working in the studio work of imagination and remembrance of Regis Gignoux, a French landscape 20 and has a dream-like generality to it. It artist who painted in America, belongs to a style of landscape painting Inness traveled to Europe in 1847. After NEAR THE COAST (c. 1885) which reacted against the strict realism of a second trip to Italy and France from the Hudson River style. Generally called 1870-1875, he settled in Montclair, New R. Swain Gifford (1840-1905) tonalism, it was a style of the last decades Jersey, where he painted during his Oil on canvas, 32Vs x 51% inches of the century, which introduced the later years. Gift of an Association of Gentlemen, 85.7 mood of the artist into the landscape. Inness's early works were tightly Gifford painted the expressive qualities in R. Swain Gifford was almost twenty years executed in the Hudson River style, but nature. The mood of Near the Coast is younger than his distant cousin Sanf ord he broke away from the tradition to mysterious and evocative, and the artist R. Gifford. Born on an island off the coast begin something new in American land­ intends to show us the power and poetry of Massachusetts, Swain Gifford was scape painting. Autumn Oaks im­ of nature along this rugged section of the son of a fisherman and grew up next mediately follows his return from his New England coast. second trip to France in 1875, and to the sea. After working on the docks in the change in his style is due to the influ­ New Bedford, he began as a marine ence of the Barbizon landscape painter, sketching ships in the harbor. His painters Corot, Rousseau, and Daubigny, paintings of whaling ships were used whom Inness greatly admired. Unlike by a Boston publisher as the basis for a earlier works, Autumn Oaks is not an series of lithographs. Gifford worked allegorical landscape in which elements first in Boston, and then New York, where of the scene symbolize goodness or hope, he taught at Cooper Union Art School. and it is not a narrative work, in Like other American artists, he was an which figures in the picture refer to a avid traveler. In 1869 he took a sketching story. Rather, it reflects an interest in trip to California and Oregon, and several purely pictorial content. Inness learned trips in following years to Europe and North Africa. mental breakdown. In 1899 he was com­ mitted to a mental hospital which he did not leave until a few years before his death. Pure landscapes generally eclipse all other subjects in Blakelock's art. His style evolved from the literal realism of the Hudson River school to a poetic, looser style. His work is unique and stands at the periphery of the tonalist movement of the same time, which reacted against the excesses of realism. Blakelock's object was to paint his own experience of nature. Therefore, in Landscape he added sub­ jective feeling to objective fact, and the result is a dream-world, which is the product of imagination more than obser­ vation. He achieved the luminous, enam­ eled effects of this moonlight scene by slowly constructing layer upon layer of paint. In the area of the sky he scraped and re-applied paint repeatedly, but other areas show the harmful effect of his use of bitumen. Because it is a chemical which never dries, it has cracked and blurred sections of paint. The dark, unreal 21 steps, but his interest in music and land­ trees silhouetted against the sky and the scape painting distracted him from flattened space in which they exist make LANDSCAPE everything else. Unlike his contempo­ Landscape into a personal, romantic vision. raries who went abroad for training, Ralph Albert Blakelock (1847-1919) Blakelock was self-taught. He never went Oil on canvas, 27 x 373/s inches to Europe, and traveled only in the Far Gift of the nieces of Harmon W. West, where he sketched several Indian Hendricks, 29.35 tribes. Blakelock could not support his large family by selling his pictures, and Blakelock was the son of a doctor, who financial pressures finally drove him to a hoped his son would follow in his foot­ 22 HARVEST SCENE (c. 1877-78)

Winslow Homer (1836-1910) Oil on canvas, 16 x 24 inches George A. Hearn Fund, 09.26.6

Winslow Homer, one of the most impor­ tant figures in 19th century American painting, was not primarily a landscape painter. He began his career as a free­ lance illustrator, making wood engravings of scenes of American life for Ballou's Pictorial and Harper's Weekly. During the Civil War (1861-1865), he was an "artist-correspondent," and visited the battlefields and encampments of the Union Army. He began to paint during these years, and, in 1867, he went to Paris, where he was introduced to modern French painting and the cafe life of the French painters. After returning to this country he began to develop his own distinctive style in oil painting and water- color. In 1875 he stopped working for illustrated magazines. Homer spent the summer of 1878 at Houghton Farm, Mountainville, New York, and may have painted Harvest Harvest Scene indicates the extent to 23 Scene at this time. Scenes of quiet, rural which Homer absorbed the techniques of life characterize his work throughout the Barbizon and early Impressionist land­ MOONLIGHT-WOOD'S ISLAND decade of the 1870s. Here Homer has scape painting during his stay in France. LIGHT (1894) broken away from the journalistic style Through the work of Homer and the teaching of William Morris Hunt, the Winslow Homer (1836-1910) which is associated with his earlier work 3 x toward a style which is more purely pic­ ideas of contemporary French painting Oil on canvas, 30 /4 x 40 /4 inches torial. Although the subject is American, were introduced into the mainstream of Gift of George A. Hearn, in memory of the soft-focus and rich surface style of American art. Arthur Hoppock Hearn, 11.116.2 26 UNION SQUARE, NEW YORK (1890)

ChildeHassam (1859-1935) Oil on canvas, 18Vs x 18Vs inches Gift of Miss Ethelyn McKinney, in memory of her brother Glenn Ford McKinney, 43.116.2

Hassam was one of the leading American Impressionists. He was born in Dor­ chester, Massachusetts, the son of a well-to-do Boston merchant. He began his artistic career as a wood engraver, and turned to painting in the late 1870s. When he was 24 he made his first trip to Europe, producing sketches and a series of water- colors. After marrying in 1886, he left for a three-year stay in Paris, where he entered the Academie Julian, as Twacht- man had done a few years before. While in Paris, Hassam's work became increas­ ingly Impressionist. Clear sunlit days, painted with a corresponding bright palette and broken brush strokes charac­ New York City became his home in terize his paintings of this time, but he 1890, and provided subject matter for also began painting gray, atmospheric many pictures. Union Square is a scene days. After his return to the United States under atmospheric conditions that Has­ in 1889, Hassam entered the decade which sam loved to paint—a bustling street at was the highpoint of his career, when his dusk, on a cold, snowy, winter day. He Impressionist manner fully developed. has tried to unify the forms of architec­ His work was appreciated and sold, giving ture, moving crowds and traffic under one him a measure of financial security. With atmospheric veil. Union Square is an Twachtman, Hassam was the co-founder example of a new subject in American in 1898 of the Society of Ten, an organi­ landscape painting—the city, which, at the zation of American Impressionists. turn of the century, had changed the face of the country.