19th century American Paintings

Friday, May 4, 2012

Thomas Moran

Thomas Moran (1837-1926) was an English-born artist who became one of the greatest painters of the Hudson River School. While some of his paintings were of the eastern US, the bulk of his work had as its subject matter the Rocky Mountains and the Far West.

Lots of Moran resources online, including a great feature at the National Gallery of Art.

This first set of Moran paintings (there will be more in later posts) is focused on paintings of eastern landscapes.

East Hampton, Long Island (1919)

Autumn on the Wissahickon (1864)

Cresheim Glen, Wissahickon, Autumn (1864)

Forest Scene (1870)

Nutting, Autumn (1864)

Old Windmill, East Hampton, Long Island, New York (1912)

Ponce de Leon in Florida (1877-78)

The Old Bridge over Hook Pond, East Hampton, Long Island, New York (1907)

Under the Trees (The Autumnal Woods) (1865)

This is my favorite painting by Moran.

Woodland Interior with Rocky Stream (1864)

View of East Hampton (1900)

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Hudson River School

The earliest art movement in America that was "home-grown", as opposed to being merely a transplant from Europe, was the Hudson River School of landscape painting. The genesis of this movement was the paintings of Thomas Cole, featured in an earlier post. The heyday of the Hudson River School was between 1855 and 1875; during this period its major painters, Frederic Edwin Church, Thomas Moran and Albert Bierstadt, were significant celebrities. By the turn of the 20th century, art had moved on and the Hudson River School was nearly forgotten.

The artists of this movement produced some of the greatest and most detailed landscape paintings in history. The opening of the American West, with its vast and dramatic landscapes, provided ample inspiration for the Hudson River School, which grew beyond its tame Northeastern US roots to document the American wilderness for an increasingly urbanized population.

Asher Brown Durand (1796-1886) was a contemporary of Thomas Cole, and may be considered a co-founder of the Hudson River School.

Asher Brown Durand: God's Judgment Upon Gog (ca. 1851)

Asher Brown Durand: Landscape with Covered Wagon (1847)

Next are a few by Herman Herzog (1831-1932, a long-lived fellow).

Herman Herzog: Daybreak on a Snowy Morning (date not known)

Herman Herzog: Season's Greetings (date not known)

Herman Herzog: Sunset Near Low Creek, Florida (date not known)

Jervis McEntee was a lesser known figure in the Hudson River School.

Jervis McEntee: Indian Summer (ca. 1861)

Sanford Robinson Gifford (1823-1880) was a leading member of the school. His paintings are characterized by an emphasis on light.

Sanford Robinson Gifford: Morning in the Hudson, Haverstraw Bay (1866)

Friday, April 27, 2012

Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze - Painter of History

Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze (1816-1868) was an German-American painter. Moving to America as a child, he returned to Germany in adulthood to study and paint. He moved back to America later in life.

Gottlieb's best-known work is one of the most iconic paintings of American history: Washington Crossing the Delaware. Ironically, the main inspiration for this painting seems to have been the European revolutions of 1848 (Gottlieb was in Germany at the time and was a strong supporter of the 1848 revolutions).

Washington Crossing the Delaware (1851)

Columbus Before the Queen (1843)

Gottlieb's largest painting was an enormous mural, Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way. Measuring 20 x 30 feet, the mural resides in the US House of Representatives. This is an allegorical depiction of America's 19th century "manifest destiny" philosophy, which viewed expansion throughout the North American continent as a natural progression. Gottlieb's notes on the painting are quite revealing as to the symbolism.

Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way (1862)

Gottlieb's painting of Queen Elizabeth I and Sir Walter Raleigh depicts the mythical (i.e., it never happened) event when Raleigh lays down his cloak to allow the queen to cross a mud puddle unmuddied. The myth was replayed in Sir Walter Scott's novel Kenilworth:

"Accordingly, she fixed her keen glance on the youth, as she approached the place where he stood, with a look in which surprise at his boldness seemed to be unmingled with resentment, while a trifling accident happened which attracted her attention towards him yet more strongly. The night had been rainy, and just where the young gentleman stood a small quantity of mud interrupted the Queen's passage. As she hesitated to pass on, the gallant, throwing his cloak from his shoulders, laid it on the miry spot, so as to ensure her stepping over it dry-shod. Elizabeth looked at the young man, who accompanied this act of devoted courtesy with a profound reverence, and a blush that overspread his whole countenance. The Queen was confused, and blushed in her turn, nodded her head, hastily passed on, and embarked in her barge without saying a word."

Queen Elizabeth I and Sir Walter Raleigh (1848)

His other painting of Queen Elizabeth I depicts the future queen as a princess after her interrogation in the Tower of London in 1554. The matter involved Elizabeth’s loyalty to the Protestant cause in the face of Queen Mary’s militant Catholicism. Elements such as the statue of the Virgin and Child were occasionally interpreted as evidence of Elizabeth’s religious ambivalence, insinuating that her motives were founded on political rather than spiritual matters.

Princess Elizabeth in the Tower (1860)

Gottlieb's other painting of the Tudor era is of Elizabeth I's parents, Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, during their courtship. Henry's then-queen, Catherine of Aragon (just right of center in the painting), is in many ways the central figure in this painting, which appears to depict her as a sympathetic character who was betrayed and publically humiliated by her husband.

The Courtship of Anne Boleyn (1846)

Storming of the Teocalli by Cortez and His Troops (1848)

Evening Party at Milton's, Consisting of Oliver Cromwell and Family, Algernon Sydney, Ireton, &c (1854)

Next is another painting of an incident from the Revolutionary War, Mrs. Schuyler Burning Her Wheat Fields on the Approach of the British.

Mrs. Schuyler Burning Her Wheat Fields on the Approach of the British (1852)

The Amber Necklace (1847)

Thursday, April 26, 2012

Thomas Cole

Thomas Cole (1801-1848) was an English-born painter who moved to America with his family in his late teens. He was a superb landscape painter and founded the Hudson River School of American landscape painting.

There is a short film about Cole that you can view online.

We start with some of Cole's landscapes of the Northeastern United States:

View in the White Mountains (1827)

View on Lake Winnipiseogee (1828)

Distant View of Niagara Falls (1830)

Home in the Woods (1847)

Sunny Morning on the Hudson River (1827)

A View of the Mountain Pass Called the Notch of the White Mountains (Crawford Notch) (1839)

Kaaterskill Falls (1826)

The Clove, Catskills (1827)

The Pic-Nic (1846)

View from Mount Holyoke, Northampton, Massachusetts, after a Thunderstorm—The Oxbow (1836)

The Hunter's Return (1845)

Next, there is a group of paintings of European landscapes, most featuring Classical ruins.

Aqueduct Near Rome (1832)

Arch of Nero (1846)

Il Penseroso (1845)

L'Allegro (Italian Sunset) (1845)

Mount Aetna From Taormina (1843)

Mount Aetna (1842)

The Vale and Temple of Segesta (1844)

Valley of the Vaucluse (1841)

An aspect of Cole's work that was somewhat unusual was his predilection for doing paintings in series. His best known of these was The Course of Empire, a series of five paintings. Cole described this series as follows, in a letter to a patron:

"A series of pictures might be painted that should illustrate the History of a natural scene, as well as be an Epitome of Man—showing the natural changes of Landscape & those effected by man in his progress from Barbarism to Civilization, to Luxury, the Vicious state or state of destruction and to the state of Ruin & Desolation.

The philosophy of my subject is drawn from the history of the past, wherein we see how nations have risen from the Savage state to that of Power & Glory & then fallen & become extinct..."

About this series of paintings, the novelist James Fenimore Cooper remarked, "Not only do I consider the Course of Empire the work of the highest genius this country has ever produced, but I esteem it one of the noblest works of art that has ever been wrought."

The Course of Empire: The Savage State (1834)

The Course of Empire: The Arcadian State (1834)

The Course of Empire: The Consummation of Empire (1835)

The Course of Empire: Destruction (1836)

The Course of Empire: Desolation (1836)

Next is a pair of paintings depicting the departure of a medieval warrior from his home castle, and his return as a corpse. These paintings may be a commentary on the futility of war.