Art, Literature, & Reform Between 1830 -1860 American art flourished

Prior to this period American artists looked to Europe for inspiration

1830s artists discover American landscape

During the age of Manifest Destiny tensions between the wilderness & civilization inspire a generation of artists and writers

Hudson River School of Art

Thomas Cole & Asher Durand most well known Hudson River School Artists

Asher DurandKindred Spirits

James John Audubon, Great Blue Heron 1821

George Catlin, Buffalo Chase 1832

• George Catlin, Buffalo Herds Crossing Upper Missouri 1832

George Catlin, Sioux Encampment on Upper Missouri Dressing, Buffalo Meat and Robes 1832

Albert Bierstadt, Looking Down Yosemite

Winslow Homer, Rainy Day in Camp 1862

John Gast, American Progress 1872

Transcendentalist

Believed: Humans could improve their world byestablishing a closer spiritual tie with nature

Nature held the higher laws of the universe andultimate reality

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Believed: Human spirit was reflected in nature

The accumulation of material wealth secondary to nature & higher laws of God

Henry David Thoreau Walden

Civil Disobedience

James Fenimore Cooper- Leather Stocking Tales Depicts resourceful frontier hero Natty Bumpo.He lacked manors and refinement for the East,but had the survival skills needed for the West.

Washington Irving- Local Tales, The Legend ofSleepy Hollow, & Rip Van Winkle

Contrasted the change in America from our ruralpast to a nation of modern cities.

Nathaniel Hawthorne- Scarlet Letter & House ofthe Seven Gables

Work reflected Puritan influence and criticizedexcessive Individualism.

Herman Melville- Moby Dick Portrayed the limits of mans’ power andtechnology in the face of Nature

Walt Whitman- Leaves of Grass Celebrated the common people. First poet ofAmerican democracy.