Exhibitions

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The Hudson River to Niagara Falls: 19th-century American Landscape Paintings from
the New-York Historical Society

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Curated by Dr. Linda S. Ferber

July 11 – December 13, 2009
East Wing Galleries

The Hudson River to Niagara Falls presents landscape paintings of sites in New York State, all from the collection of the venerable New-York Historical Society. These works depict the magnificent landscapes and waterways of the Empire State, from the mouth of the Hudson River to the northern reaches of the Adirondacks, and to Niagara Falls at the far western boundary of the state. The exhibition sequence largely follows the course of two of New York's ancient and historic waterways, the Hudson and the Mohawk, its western tributary. This presentation lets us glimpse the sights and the natural and man-made landmarks that inspired generations of nineteenth-century artists and travelers, whose admiration for native scenery gave rise to America's national movement for landscape preservation. Alongside this reverence for pristine scenery, it is important to recognize that the Hudson River and, indeed, the landscape of New York State also held long-exploited commercial and industrial sites. These are also recorded in landscape paintings, but are often so deftly naturalized that today we may overlook the evidence of extractive industries, the impact of the railroad, real estate development, and the tourist business. Balancing the national enthusiasm for progress, is the farsighted public stewardship that has safeguarded vast tracts of wilderness, the river itself, and a number of artists' homesteads, which have been designated as landmarks and preserves, and thus safeguarded for us and for future generations.

Robert Havell, View of Hudson River from Tarrytown Heights, ca. 1842

America's Favorite River

The Hudson River and the natural features on its shores have long been identified with the history of early inhabitants, including the Native Americans, the Dutch, and the British. Key battles of the American Revolution were fought along the river's course. Such historical associations, amid the evocative wilderness terrain of the Catskill, Shawangunk and Adirondack mountains, still enrich our experience of regional sites throughout the Hudson River Valley and beyond. In the early nineteenth century, these associations provided catalysts for the loosely knit group of artists, along with like-minded poets and writers, who rose to eminence in New York. Their mission, as they saw it, was to create an "American" landscape vision and literary voice based on the exploration of Nature - the natural world defined as a resource for spiritual renewal and as an expression of cultural and national identity. The largely urban audience for such images was served first by printmakers and then by the artists whose works are in this exhibition, many of whom are counted among the Hudson River School.

 

Thomas Cole, Sunset, View on the Catskill, 1833

Artist Life Along the River

Many of the landscape painters in the exhibition hailed from small towns and villages along the Hudson in New York and New Jersey or later acquired country retreats near their summer sketching grounds. Durand's native Jefferson Village is today suburban Maplewood, New Jersey. His protégées Thomas H. Hotchkiss and Jervis McEntee grew up in Coxsackie and Rondout, respectively. Jasper Cropsey was from an old Staten Island family. Sanford R. Gifford's hometown was Hudson. George Inness was born in Newburgh (as was Andrew Jackson Downing), A. D. O. Browere in Tarrytown, and John Ferguson Weir at West Point. The brothers James and William Hart grew up in Albany. Artist emigrants from England settled along the Hudson: Joseph Tubby at Kingston; Robert Havell first at Tarrytown, then at Sing Sing. The English-born Thomas Cole left New York City to settle permanently at Catskill. Durand acquired a country property near Newburgh. Samuel Morse had Locust Grove at Poughkeepsie. Malkasten, Albert Bierstadt's country house at Irvington was destroyed by fire. Cole's pupil, Frederic Edwin Church, built Olana, his remarkable Orientalizing house at Hudson. Jasper F. Cropsey settled at Hastings-on-Hudson at Ever Rest. Cole's Cedar Grove, Morses' Locust Grove, Church's Olana, and Cropsey's Ever Rest are landmarks preserved as historic sites and can be visited today.

Painting in Place: Plein-Air Practice

Although New York City was the center of the artists' professional community and the art market, the creative sites for landscape painters were upriver and upstate. All along the river and in the Catskills, the Shawangunks, and the
Adirondacks lay the sketching grounds where artists engaged in the usually communal practice of plein-air sketching and painting. This outdoor experience underlies much of the strong sense of place and atmosphere characteristic of the mid-nineteenth-century landscape vision. Such conviction also came to be identified with the Hudson River School and the "School" itself was named for the river connecting New York City to these regions. Today, vast tracts of wilderness have been preserved; the Catskill and Shandaken ranges are part of the Catskill Park and Forest Preserve created in 1904. The Mohonk Preserve is in the nearby Shawangunks. Further north is the Adirondack Park and Forest Preserve set aside by New York State in 1892 to remain "forever wild." A number of artists' residences are also historic sites, as part of the rich cultural patrimony of New York State and the nation. Their continuing popularity as touring destinations along the Hudson speaks to the resonance of their associations with the sketching grounds of American landscape painters.

 

Thomas Chambers, Lake George and the Village of Caldwell, ca. 1850, oil on canvas, Thomas Jefferson Bryan Fund, 1977.13

 

Lake George and the Adirondacks

Lake George, wrote Thomas Jefferson in 1791, is "the most beautiful water I ever saw." This glacially formed lake, joining Lake Champlain at the eastern edge of the Adirondack range, was one of the early scenic attractions in northern New York State. Later visitors, including many landscape painters, reached the popular resort area via steamer up the Hudson to Albany, completing the journey by rail and stagecoach. Lakes George and Champlain also provided a route to the Adirondacks, densely forested and precipitous terrain that was even more dramatic than the Catskills. Thomas Cole and Asher B. Durand were among the earliest artist visitors in the 1830s. By the mid-nineteenth century, the Adirondacks were teeming with painters, tourists and sportsmen. During the Gilded Age, wealthy industrialists built elaborate compounds known as Great Camps there, some of which are preserved today as National Historic Sites. In the 1880s, preservation efforts were launched to contain regional mining and logging in order to ensure that the Adirondack Park would remain "forever wild."

 

The Mohawk and the Erie Canal

Another magnificent yet heavily developed and long-domesticated landscape is found along the Mohawk River, whose westward course determined the route of the Erie Canal, completed in 1825. Though later replaced for commercial purposes by highways and a modern barge canal, sections of the Erie Canal are still in use - now mainly for recreation. The 363-mile-long man-made waterway, dug by hand and by horsepower, was a bold engineering and commercial venture that encouraged industry and agriculture in western New York, generated a system of branch canals, and spawned industrial boom towns along its route. The canal also provided enhanced access to a number of spectacular natural sites that attracted artists and touring parties including Niagara Falls, one of the earliest and most popular tourist and artist destinations. The mighty falls also generated the early industrial development of the site, harnessing the river's energy to power factories and mills. A commission in 1870s bought commercially developed land around the falls to be incorporated into Frederic Law Olmsted's Niagara Reservation State Park.

 

 

Word & Image:
The Literature of Picturesque Touring

Beginning in the early 19th century, elite Americans embraced the English rituals of picturesque touring, complete with the
literature that was (and still is) so important to this cultural practice. These illustrated publications, many of which focused on the Hudson River and Valley, extolled scenery that elicited a well-established set of aesthetic and emotional responses: the sublime (awe), the beautiful (harmony), and the picturesque (charm). Tourists traveled along a pre-set itinerary of natural and manmade landmarks deemed significant for scenic beauty or drama; for historical importance; or as demonstrations of national progress (towns, dams, canals). Many of these destinations soon became associated with American national identity, as well as providing for spiritual enrichment. Lavishly illustrated publications offered armchair travelers the vicarious experience of picturesque touring at home. Three of the most famous early publications associated with picturesque tourism, ranging in date from 1828 to 1866, are shown here. Milbert's portfolio of lithographs, N. P. Willis's illustrated volume, and Lossing's Hudson River guide were first published abroad, demonstrating the fascination American scenery held for international audiences, as well as for citizens of the United States. In a series of popular and influential mid-century publications, Andrew Jackson Downing applied the conventions of picturesque scenery to garden and house designs for middle-class country and suburban residences. Wade and Croome (1847) and Wallace Bruce (1907) produced famous pocket-guides for voyagers on the Hudson River, offering wonderful maps and extensive annotations that provided travelers with commentary on natural and manmade landmarks, many of which are still visible today.

The exhibition and related interpretive activities contribute to community-wide programming developed to commemorate the Hudson-Fulton-Champlain Quadricentennial, marking the 400th anniversary of Hudson and Champlain's voyages along the river and lake that bear their names, and the 200th anniversary of Robert Fulton's steamboat voyage on the Hudson, which initiated steam commerce on the river. The project is organized by the New-York Historical Society and The Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art (SDMA) at the State University of New York at New Paltz.