Hudson River School

Celebrating the Hudson River's Rich Heritage

A number of American artists and writers have contributed to Lives of the Hudson, a compelling new book on the artistic, literary, and environmental history of the Hudson River from Prestel. The site of stunning historic estates like Astor Courts and Marienruh, the river is much more than mere scenery. The companion volume to an exhibition of the same name staged at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, the book explores the river's complex history via sections entitled The Natural River, The Imagined River, The Human River, and The Working River. Along with important works by famed Hudson River School painters such as Albert Bierstadt and Thomas Cole, the book features literary contributions from the likes of Rick Moody, Carolyn Forche, Philip Lopate and others. Cultural artifacts provide a fascinating background of the river's many lives while contemporary artwork asks us to "reconsider our use of the river and our relationship with nature and history."

Tags: art, coffee table books, environment, exhibition, Hudson River, Hudson River School, museum, New York, Rick Moody, river, Saratoga Springs, Skidmore

Paintings of the Hudson River School

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Art, Books

In celebration of the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson's first voyage up the Hudson River, the New York Historical Society has an exhibition of Hudson River School paintings running through March. In case you can't make it to the museum in person, they've also just published a book, The Hudson River School: Nature and the American Vision, featuring works from their incredible collection. In the first half of the 19th century, a group of painters working in New York City developed a distinctly American vision of the landscape. Their powerful interpretations of American scenery, which came to be known as the Hudson River School, "tell the story of how landscape imagery can shape both national and cultural identity." The book showcases more than a hundred of these images, many in full-page reproductions that convey the original paintings' monumental scale, and features work by all the greatest artists of the group including Albert Bierstadt, Frederic Church, Thomas Cole, Jasper Cropsey and Asher B. Durand.

Tags: Frederic Church, FredericChurch, Hudson River, Hudson River School, HudsonRiver, HudsonRiverSchool, museum, New York, New York Historical Society, NewYork, NewYorkHistoricalSociety, Olana, painting