Christian romanticism has a significant influence on Hudson River artists, whose foundation can be traced back to the fundamental cohesion between humankind, nature and god based on Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) and his student Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862). Agreeing that nature was thought to be indicative of divinity, “the paintings of Cole are of that nature that it hardly transcends the proper use of language to call them acts of religion,” wrote William Cullen Bryant. Cropsey shared a strong religious faith with Cole writing that: “Ambition may be praise worthy when its aim is that of excellence - and the foundation from which it draws its nourishment that of Almighty construction and wisdom.”
Cole’s Essay on American Scenery, 1835, a provocative statement of American wilderness as the Garden of Eden regained, offered his successors with moral instructions on how various aspects of nature can serve as traditional religious symbols. Cropsey’s Autumn on the Hudson River, to a large content, accorded with three distinctive elements raised by Cole’s essay. In the essay, mountains come up the first and indicates an important concept as “a union of the magnificent.” In the upper right center of the painting, mountains standing as sublime watch over the human presence below. The pond on the left of the painting echoes …show more content…
They then became fast friends and sketch companions in the Adirondacks and New England in the late 1830s. In order to extend knowledge of art and nature, Durand, as his contemporary American artists, pursued the path of old masters extensively in the galleries of Europe from 1840 to 1841. During this time, Durand became aware of John Constable (1776-1837)’s “plein-air" oil sketches through his acquaintance Charles R. Leslie, and began to work on the nature studies. In his journal, Durand
Cole’s Essay on American Scenery, 1835, a provocative statement of American wilderness as the Garden of Eden regained, offered his successors with moral instructions on how various aspects of nature can serve as traditional religious symbols. Cropsey’s Autumn on the Hudson River, to a large content, accorded with three distinctive elements raised by Cole’s essay. In the essay, mountains come up the first and indicates an important concept as “a union of the magnificent.” In the upper right center of the painting, mountains standing as sublime watch over the human presence below. The pond on the left of the painting echoes …show more content…
They then became fast friends and sketch companions in the Adirondacks and New England in the late 1830s. In order to extend knowledge of art and nature, Durand, as his contemporary American artists, pursued the path of old masters extensively in the galleries of Europe from 1840 to 1841. During this time, Durand became aware of John Constable (1776-1837)’s “plein-air" oil sketches through his acquaintance Charles R. Leslie, and began to work on the nature studies. In his journal, Durand