The 19th-century artists of the Hudson River School produced some of the most memorable and quintessentially American landscapes in our nation’s history. Tap in to their vision through paintings by Frederic Edwin Church, Thomas Cole, and more.
The New-York Historical Society has loaned 45 exceptional American landscapes from its collection for a rare display of these works on the West Coast. “Nature and the American Vision: The Hudson River School” is on view now at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), where it will continue through June 7, 2015.
The exhibition features paintings by leading figures of the Hudson River School, who, in the mid-19th-century, revolutionized landscape painting in America and propelled it forward into modernity. Artists featured in the exhibition include Asher B. Durand, Albert Bierstadt, Thomas Cole, Frederic Edwin Church, Jasper Francis Cropsey, Louisa Davis Minot, and more.
Nature and the American Vision
“Nature and the American Vision” treats the primary themes of the Hudson River School with landscapes exemplifying the beautiful, the sublime, and man’s costly intervention into nature. Organized thematically according to place, the exhibition will serve as a meaningful review of, or introduction to, these artists and their broader movement.
The exhibition culminates with Thomas Cole’s iconic five-part painting series “The Course of Empire.” These allegorical paintings remain among the most eloquent depictions of the tension created by America’s desire for progress and its reverence for untamed nature.
To learn more, visit LACMA’s website.
