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American Romanticism

American Romanticism. The Hudson River School. Romantic Period in America 1828-1865. Romanticism is a more general trend that encompasses American Transcendentalism. Many of the principles listed here were common to British Romanticism, too.

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American Romanticism

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  1. American Romanticism The Hudson River School

  2. Romantic Period in America 1828-1865 • Romanticism is a more general trend that encompasses American Transcendentalism. • Many of the principles listed here were common to British Romanticism, too. • The Hudson River School in American art illustrates some of these ideas. • As we talk about these principles, think about how the readings for today might apply.

  3. Romanticism: General Principles • 1. Belief in natural goodness of human beings • Human beings in a state of nature would behave well but are hindered by civilization. • The figure of the "Noble Savage" is an outgrowth of this idea. • 2. Sensibility. Sincerity, spontaneity, and faith in emotion as markers of truth. • 3. Individualism. Belief that what is special in human beings is to be valued over what is representative; delight in self-analysis.

  4. Principles, continued 4. Nature as a source of instruction, delight, and nourishment for the soul. • Return to nature as a source of inspiration and wisdom. • Celebration of a human being’s individual connection with nature. • Living in nature often contrasted with the unnatural constraints of society.

  5. Principles, continued 5. Interest in the “antique”: • Medieval tales and forms • Ballads • Norse and Celtic mythology • The Gothic 6. Spiritual force exists in nature and in the mind of human beings. 7. Affirmation of the values of democracy and the freedom of the individual. 8. High value placed on finding connection with fresh, spontaneous elements in nature and self.

  6. Romantic Principles in Art Romantic Principles Neoclassical Principles Order Rules of proportion Decorum Symmetry Balanced composition in paintings Polished in form and technique Nature tamed by human beings • Sublime • Grotesque • Picturesque • Organic form arising from subject matter • Irregular and unexpected shapes • Rough and natural rather than refined • Grandeur of nature

  7. Frederick Edwin Church, Niagara (1857)

  8. The Hudson River School: Artists Thomas Cole (1801-1848) Asher B. Durand (1796-1886) Thomas Doughty (1793-1856) Second Generation (luminists): Frederick Edwin Church Jasper Cropsey Albert Bierstadt (Picture is Kindred Spirits by Asher B. Durand.)

  9. Hudson River School: Themes and Techniques Themes Techniques Juxtaposition of elements Use of panoramic views and small human figures to show immensity of nature and insignificance of human beings Distant or elevated perspective for the viewer Symbolic use of light and darkness Contrast of diverse elements to show the unity of nature • “Home in the Wilderness” • Juncture of civilization and wilderness: “Wilderness on the doorstep” • Incursions of civilization and progress into a pristine wilderness. • Harmonious integration of wilderness and civilization (Thomas Cole, The Ox-Bow)

  10. Thomas Cole, The Ox-Bow (1836)

  11. Thomas Cole, The Hunter’s Return (1845)

  12. Thomas Cole, Home in the Woods (1847)

  13. Thomas Cole, Scene from Last of the Mohicans: Cora Kneeling at the Feet of Tamenund(1827)

  14. Thomas Cole, A View of the Mountain Pass Called the Notch of the White Mountains (Crawford Notch), 1839

  15. Beautiful, Sublime, Picturesque • Longinus, On the Sublime(CE 50) • Resulting from spirit--a spark from writer to reader--rather than technique • Edmund Burke, Philosophical Inquiry into the Origins of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful (1757-1759) • Immanuel Kant, Critique of Judgment (1790) • Beauty is finite; the sublime is infinite The Beautiful: • “Feminine” qualities • Harmony • Sociability • Pastels • Sensual curves

  16. Burke on the Sublime • Painful idea creates a sublime passion • Sublime concentrates the mind on a single facet of experience, producing a momentary suspension of rational activity • Harsh, antisocial, “masculine” representations exist in the realm of obscurity and brute force

  17. The Sublime • “Agreeable horror” results from portrayals of threatening objects • Greater aesthetic value if the pain producing the effect is imaginary rather than real • Feelings of awe at sublime nature the aim of certain kinds of art • Influenced Poe, the “Graveyard School” of poetry, and Gothic novels

  18. Thomas Moran, The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, 1872

  19. Frederick Edwin Church, The Heart of the Andes (1859)

  20. Picturesque • Intermediate category between the sublime and the beautiful • Allowed the painter to organize nature into what Pope called a “wild civility” • William Gilpin: illustrated tours in the 1790s established the conventions

  21. Characteristics of the Picturesque • Ruggedness and asymmetry • Irregularity of line • Contrasts of light and shadow • Landscape as a rundown Arcadia • Ruined towers, fractured rocks • Mossy banks and winding streams • Blighted or twisted trees • Appeal to nostalgia for preindustrial age

  22. Thomas Cole, Roman Campagna (Ruins of Aqueducts in the Campagna di Roma), 1843

  23. Questions?

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