The Oxbow, by Thomas Cole, a noted Hudson River School artist

American Art

Early American Art

Most of early American art (from the late 18th century through the early 19th century) consists of history painting and portraits.

Paul Revereby John Singleton Copley

(1768)

Thomas Jeffersonby Charles Wilson Peale (1791)

Battle of Bunker Hill by John Trumbull (1786)

Stressed creativity and emotion

Inspired by natureThe American wilderness

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow“Paul Revere’s Ride”

Wanted American to "ignore the courtly Muses of Europe“

Define a distinct vision for American art.

Did not want Americans to rely on the Europeans

Part of the Transcendentalist movement

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Founded by Asher Durand

Influenced by Romanticism and Emerson’s call for a distinct vision for American art.

Painted lush landscapesMany traveled west

for inspiration

Hudson River School

Asher Durand1791 – 1886

Founder of the Hudson River School

"Let [the artist] scrupulously accept whatever [nature] presents him until he shall, in a degree, have become intimate with her infinity...never let him profane her sacredness by a willful departure from truth."

Self Portrait

“Kindred Spirits”

Thomas Cole

1801 – 1848Self Portrait

Frederic Church

1826 – 1900

NIAGARA FALLS

NaturalBridge

John James AudobonDrew birds, mammals,

plants, and other subjects of natureDrew them as he floated

down the Mississippi River

His Birds of America is the most important work on birds ever published

Today the Audubon Society continues his spirit of protecting birds and their habitats

Nathaniel Hawthorne- The Scarlet Letter Inspired by the Witchcraft

trials

Washington Irving- “Rip Van Winkle” & “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” First American writer to

gain fame in Europe

Herman Melville- Moby Dick Desire to kill a white whale

Edgar Allen Poe- “Murders in Rue Morgue” Wrote the 1st detective stories

Walt Whitman- Leaves of Grass Unrhymed poems about

ordinary people