thomas cole and hudson river school

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Version 1.0. created 17 Dec 2010. Jerry Tse. London. All rights reserved. Available free for non-commercial and non-profit use only. Thomas Cole and the Hudson River School. 1801 - 1848 The Titan’s Goblet (Detail). 1833. Thomas Cole. Thomas Cole. 1838 by Asher B Durand

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Version 1.0. created 17 Dec 2010. Jerry Tse. London. All rights reserved. Available free for non-commercial and non-profit use only. Thomas Cole and the Hudson River School. 1801 - 1848 Thomas Cole. 1838 by Asher B Durand The Titan’s Goblet (Detail). 1833. Thomas Cole.

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An early works – Kaaterskill Falls

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Many of his early works were views of Catskill area.

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Catskill is on the upper reach of the Hudson River

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Between 1829 and 1832, he spent 3 years on visit to Europe.

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Europe was an inspiration to Cole, in particular Rome.

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The Course of Empire It is his most famous work which depicts the same landscape over the fortune of an empire from its beginning to its eventual destruction. Was this a warning to the developing America? On his first trip to Europe, he visited Rome, which inspired Cole to consider the development of The Course of Empire. Pastoral Savage Consummation Destruction Desolation

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The dawn of an empire without monuments or records.

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The beginning of culture and technology. Lives without want and greed.

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Agrarian simplicity to the empire building.

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Nature almost disappeared and the Victory march of the returning conqueror.

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Order replaced by chaos and destructions.

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Cole was not a very good portrait painter. He gave up portrait for landscape.

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‘Violence and time have crumbled the works of man’, as nature reasserts itself.

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White Mountains

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Some style techniques commonly found in his paintings Leaning tree on near ground. Small human figures. Detail painted foliage with invisible brush stokes. Middle ground with lots of details Bright & dark areas provided a more dramatic setting. With dramatic sky in the background.

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The Oxbow

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Schroon Mountain, Adirondacks

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Voyage of Life Cole had long been fascinated with the idea of the cycle of life and the cycles of history and in its decaying grandeur Rome represented in both symbol and reality the old edifice of Europe. Cole had long been fascinated with the idea of the cycle of life and the cycles of history and in its decaying grandeur Rome represented in both symbol and reality the old edifice of Europe. This suite of religious paintings was done in 1842. It is an allegory journey of a man down the river of life. We may feel indifferent to these paintings, but these were deeply moving to the viewers at the time. Nearly half a million American flocked to see the paintings in an exhibition, in 1848. The religious overtone of the paintings simply fitted to the piety of its American viewers. Childhood Youth Manhood Old Age

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Voyage of Life was commissioned to depict a pilgrim’s path through life.

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Voyage of Life - Each painting corresponds to a season in a year.

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Voyage of Life – A turn in manhood with turbulence, danger and uncertainty.

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Finally in Old Age, the man reaches the sea and the promise of eternal salvation.

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Late works – Mount Etna

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Late works – L’Allego

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Hudson River School Several members of the Hudson River School were instrumental in founding the Metropolitan Museum, New York, including Church, Kensett and Gifford. The Hudson River School was a informal association of American landscape painters, working in the middle of 19C. Founder by Thomas Cole and influenced by European painters like John Martin, Constable and Turner. They gave Romanticism a significant by building moral themes and history subjects . Cole Durand Kensett Church Gifford Cropsey Bierstadt Moran

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Timeline of American Painters – Hudson River School

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Frederic Edwin Church - The most admired of the Hudson River School Painter

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Asher Brown Durand – He was very close to Thomas Cole, who wrote to him regularly.

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John Frederick Kensett – One of the seascape painters

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Sanford Robinson Gifford - Known for emphasis on light (Luminism)

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Albert Bierstadt

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Jasper Francis Cropsey died in anonymity but was rediscovered in 1960.

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Thomas Moran – Well-known as a member of a team that explored Yellowstone.

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Comparison with European Landscape 19C American Landscape According to the art critic, Robert Hughes the development of American landscape painting was a logical direction. By early 19C, the American Republic was no longer new. The iconic founders of the nation were all dead and very old. The nation was on a territorial expansion. The unique and marvellous American landscape became the nation’s myth. The landscape painting became an assertion of the national identity. The first noticeable difference with the European landscape is the very large canvas commonly used by the American landscape painters. A closer inspection would show that the American landscape paintings belong to the Romanticism movement. The 19C American landscape style was described as the Luminism. It emphasized on the effects of light on landscape and played close attention to details and the brushstrokes were hidden.

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Comparison – American and European Landscape

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Caspar David Friedrich – The nature crashing a man-made strangled ship

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On Judgement Day as civilization is being crushed, attempting to resist the will of God.

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Thomas Cole Biography Cole was born in 1801 and brought up in Bolton, Lancashire, England. He was trained as an engraver in textile design shop but he read a great deal and would be familiar with the poetry of Wordsworth, Coleridge and Thomson. In 1818, his family emigrated to the United States, when he was 17. He was able to begin to earn a living by making wood-engraving. Soon, he took up painting and began his interest in painting landscape. By 1825, he moved to New York city and sold 3 paintings to George W Bruen, who finaned a summer trip to the Hudson Valley, where he visited the Catskill Mountain and painted the Kaaterskill Falls. Cole influenced his artistic peers, especially Asher B Durand and Frederic Edwin Church, who studied with Cole from 1844 to 1846. Thomas Cole is often regarded as the founder of the Hudson School of Painting. In 1829 he travelled to London, where he met Thomas Lawrence and Turner. In 1831 he travelled to Paris and to Florence. He stayed in Europe for 3 years before returning to the US. From 1841 to 1842, he revisited Europe, staying in London, Paris and the Alps. In 1848, Cole died at Catskill. The 4th highest peaks in the Catskills is named after him. He was the best-known American artist at the time of his death and mourned by everyone who had the slightest affiliation with arts.

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Thomas Cole Timeline Cole was the first American painter, who saw the power of landscape painting to elevated the spirit of morality and bring humankind closer to the Creator. This approach to painting is uniquely an American invention. This lies the contribution of Thomas Cole to the development of American painting.

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Conclusion In the early 19C, in contrast with Europe’s anti-clericalism, American was experiencing a religious revival, which saw millions of followers and led to the formation of new churches. Linked to the idea of Awakening was the return to a ‘purer’ or ‘primitive’ form of Christianity, based on the Bible alone. Many saw this, the Second Great Awakening heralded a new age before the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. The Second Great Awakening The Hudson River School of painting should be seen as an artistic movement, developed under these cultural environments. Amongst the newly founded churches were the Disciples of Christ, the Mormons, the Seventh Day Adventist and the Evangelical Christian Church in Canada.

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All rights reserved. Available free for non-commercial and non-profit use only Music – Excerpt Antonin Dvorak, New World Symphony, Symphony No 9 in E minor. Op 95. Second Movement – Largo. Written during his visit to the United States from 1892 to 1895. 1872 by Moran Same location in Yellowstone, Wyoming. today The End