9781422271803

MASTERS OF ART

PLATE 3 View of Niagara Falls (1846–1857) John Frederick Kensett Oil on canvas, 14 1 ⁄ 3 x 20 1 ⁄

3 inches (35.9 x 51.2 cm)

became an endemic element in the whole culture. It is important in considering the philosophy of the Hudson River School to understand how deeply it was underpinned and inspired by religious conviction. For the above reasons, it is the importance of the two strands of the English language and religious faith in the development of an essentially American culture that created the bedrock on which the independence from Europe and her old civilization was created. It was the beginning of the expression of American values and interests—or at least the hope of acquiring them. Thus, by the beginning of the nineteenth century, American culture was still Eurocentric and had to find a distinct identity. Separated from Europe—and, as a result of the Monroe Doctrine in 1823, a new nation not open to colonization, not fighting for self-government—it was able to look to itself and began to realize its size and power. It was in that context that the arts began to create their own individual, and essentially American, heritage.

11