In paintings of Cole's like The Oxbow (1835-6), the landscape is at once depicted in hyper-naturalistic detail and presented as a symbol of all the hopes and contradictions of American settler culture. Cole, Church's artistic and spiritual mentor, had been visiting the Hudson Valley since 1825 to make sketches for his work. The landscape of upstate New York was of vital significance to the American school of landscape painting that coalesced around the figure of Thomas Cole during the 1820s-40s. His presence serves as a fulcrum, offering the viewer a point of access into the scene, and presenting the landscape as a vessel for human desires and expectations. 1818) - contemplates the world spread out before him. The clouds are streaked with reddish light, while the figure in the foreground - turned away from the viewer to observe the landscape, a motif familiar from earlier European works such as Caspar David Friedrich's Wanderer above the Sea of Fog (c. A crescent-like break in the rocky terrain opens out onto the Valley, as the silver sliver of the Hudson River glistens far below. In keeping with Church's Romantic heritage, the piece is subtly but carefully composed. This atmospheric sunrise is exemplary of Church's early work, and of the influence of Thomas Cole in particular. This went hand in hand with a desire to document, taxonomize and understand the landscape at a scientific level.ġ849 Morning, Looking East over the Hudson Valley to the Catskill Mountains
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