9781422276457

While the majority of those painters who have come to be regarded as integral mem- bers of the Hudson River School dutifully trav- eled to Europe to study—or had been trained there before immigrating to America—a defi- nite sense of what it was to be an American artist was imperative. An unequivocal iden- tity that could be found in American paint- ers’ subjects as well as their methods began to gain a foothold when the fantasist Washington Irving, in a country too young to have evolved much of a folklore, set out to create one, thus reversing the usual process of turning tradi- tional tales into literature.

Landscape Scene from the Last of the Mohicans T homas C ole . 1827; oil on canvas; 25 x 31 in. (64 x 79 cm). New York State Historical Association, Cooperstown. Cole pictorially interpreted few specific literary sources, but James Fenimore Cooper’s The Last of the Mohicans was set in the Hudson River Valley and Lake George region—Cole’s metier. The tense action takes place on a mountain ledge, with immense boulders, trees aflame with autumn, and barren crags forming a rugged amphitheater. Expulsion from the Garden of Eden T homas C ole . c. 1827-1828; detail. Gift of Mrs. Maxim Karolik for the M. and M. Karolik Collection of American Paintings, 1815-1865. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Cole employed the topographical vocabulary of landscape for visualizing banish- ment from divinely created paradise. As in The Voyage of Life, a cavern-like gate signifies transition. An abject Adam and Eve venture into the barren world “east of Eden,” where Cole has placed an erupting volcano in a circle of clouds.

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