9781422271803

THE HUDSON RIVER SCHOOL

Painting, until the early years of the nineteenth century, had reflected either the Academic Classicism of European art, imported or recreated, or native painting as undertaken by itinerant artists who roamed the land looking for portrait commissions or with scenes of domestic life to sell. As the nineteenth century opened,

the people were beginning to discover the great range and variety of the landscape they had inherited and to yearn for an expression of nationhood. The land itself, in addition to providing them with a rich potential for national growth, also offered inspiration as an old land with new and varied visual delights to be discovered. It

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