American landscape was still in its infancy,
the application of the Sublime was virtually
unprecedented. It expressed a growing
appreciation of the wild native scenery
which had not been shown by many
of Cole’s predecessors. This regard was
explored throughout the remainder of the
nineteenth century, as seen in the works of
other prominent members of the school,
such as Frederic Edwin Church, Asher
Brown Durand, and the Charleston-born,
Louis Rémy Mignot.
The first section of the exhibition, The
Grand American Tour, features paintings
of the Catskill, Adirondack, and White
Mountain regions, long celebrated for
their scenic beauty as seen in such natural
wonders as Lake George, Niagara Falls,
and the New England countryside, as
well as for their man-made historic sites.
These were the destinations that most
powerfully attracted both artists and
travelers. The Grand American Tour also
includes paintings that
None know how often the commemorate the Hudson
hand of God is seen in a
Nature and the Grand
River itself as the gateway
wilderness but them that to the principal sketching
American Vision explores
rove it for a man’s life.
the artistic evolution
grounds for American
-Thomas Cole
of the Hudson River
landscape painters.
School through four
thematic sections. Within these broad
The second section, American Artists Afield,
groupings, the paintings illustrate how
contains works made during the latter half
Cole and his followers visually conveyed
of the century by Hudson River School
powerful ideas and ideals about nature,
artists who sought inspiration further from
culture, religion, and history to a fledging
home. The paintings of Frederic Edwin
Republic, one still searching for a collective
Church, Albert Bierstadt, Thomas Hill and
national identity.
Martin Johnson Heade illustrate how these
globe-trotting painters embraced the role
Frederic Edwin Church
Cayambe, 1858
Oil on canvas, 30 x 48 1/8 in. (76.2 x 122.2 cm)
The Robert L. Stuart Collection, S-91
2
columbiamuseum.org
of artist-explorer, thrilling audiences with
images of the awe-inspiring landscape of
the American West, Yosemite Valley, and
tropical South America. Nowhere is this
better illustrated than in Martin Johnson
Heade’s vibrantly colored painting, Study
of an Orchid (1872), whose painstaking
attention to detail enables the viewer to
imagine hearing the incessant buzzing
of the hummingbird’s wings and feel the
damp, humid air of the tropical rain forest
on one’s skin.
Dreams of Arcadia: Americans in Italy
features luminous canvases wrought by
Thomas Cole, Jasper Francis Cropsey,
Sanford Robinson Gifford, and others
celebrating Italy as the center of the Old
World and the principal destination for
Americans on the Grand Tour through
Europe. Viewed as the storehouse of
Western culture, Italy was a living
laboratory of the classical past, with
its cities, museums, and countryside
offering a survey of the artistic heritage
from antiquity. It also provided a striking