Dec 26, 2009

The Oxford Dictionary of Art | Hudson River School

Hudson River School.
Term applied retrospectively to a number of American landscape painters, active c.1825–c.1875, who were inspired by pride in the beauty of their homeland. This patriotic spirit won them great popularity in the middle years of the century. The early leaders and the three most important figures in the group were Thomas Cole, Thomas Doughty, and Asher B. Durand, who painted the Hudson River Valley, the Catskill Mountains, and other remote and untouched areas of natural beauty. These three artists and many of those who followed, including Jasper F. Cropsey (1823–1900) and John Frederick Kensett (1862–72), had studied in Europe and part of their inspiration came from painters of the grandiose and spectacular such as Turner and John Martin. Painters of a similar outlook who found their inspiration in the far West are known collectively as the Rocky Mountain School.