Hudson River School Painters

            The Hudson River School was a government funded school of American Art. The artists of the Hudson River School were paid by the government to travel west and create art using the landscape of the West. The purpose of this was to inspire Americans to travel west. The Hudson River School used romanticism within their paintings because within the paintings they did not include Indians, people, or animals. Because of this the West was very appealing and it created a myth about the West. These paintings helped to prove that America had one that Europe did not Wilderness. People often fantasize about untamed wilderness and living within that. The Hudson River Painters helped that dream blossom within the minds of many Americans.

Thomas Cole: The Oxbow

            Thomas Cole was born in Lancashire England. He immigrated to the United States in 1818. Cole discovered his love for wilderness at a young age and began to paint what he saw. The Oxbow is in Connecticut which not West at all but was a great example to Cole of the power and tranquility of nature. The rain clouds in the background prove the power which nature holds and the untamable force it possesses. This painting portrayed the ideals of the Hudson River Painters by showing nature rather than the people within it. Cole wanted to show the power of nature which he did by the rain clouds but more importantly by water. In a majority of the Hudson River School Painting water is present this was a way the painters used to show the force and unrelenting power of nature.

Thomas Cole: Romantic Landscape

            Romantic Landscape by Thomas Cole has several elements that are within many of the Hudson River School painting. Some of these elements include, water, broken wood, large rain clouds, and mountains. Each of these elements helped Cole portray the way he saw nature. He saw nature as an almighty force that should be preserved and respected. This was an ideal that the Hudson River Painters shared with Transcendentalists and Romantics.  This era was important to nature because it was the beginning of government involvement. This is because due to a Hudson River Valley student Yellow Stone became a national park along with many other areas. The Romantic Landscape is a good example of untouched nature which was an element that was often portrayed in these paintings.

Rainy Season in the Tropics

            Rainy Season in the tropics was created by Frederic Edwin Church in 1866. This picture contains many of the elements that the other Hudson River Valley paintings have. The most important of these is the waterfall. This painting is so beautiful and the most important and influential part of it is the waterfall. The waterfall portrays power along with the beauty of nature. Church was very influential with this painting from South America because it showed nature in a tropical way which many Americans had never experienced.

            The Hudson River Painters and the art they created were very inspiring. They helped create a relationship with humans and nature that helped to create preservation. Because of The Hudson River Painters and many others we get to experience nature with national parks. The Hudson River Painters and the work they created reminded me of The Peach Blossom Spring by T’ao Ch’ien. This is because the poem is about a town that “had lost all communication to the outside world.” (pg. 344) The Hudson River Painters were painting The West which had not been exposed to the outside world.