The Hudson River School was a mid-19th century group of landscape painters noted for their romantic depiction of America’s rapidly changing landscape. Named for the region in which the movement originally began, the paintings depicted the Adirondack and Catskill Mountains and surrounding areas. Thomas Cole, considered the founder of the movement, inspired and influenced other painters after completing a series of landscape paintings based on a trip to the Eastern Catskills. The Hudson River School soon began to reflect the spirit of the times which was discovery and exploration, and it originated what can only be classified as a sublime interpretation of the American pastoral.
A second generation of painters continued the movement, expanding the geographical subject to include other sites and regions as well, the American Southwest among them. Members of this second grouping of artists were among the founders of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
These exquisite landscapes are on view in museums across the country, however, their original sources have been carefully retraced by the Hudson River School Art Trail. Dedicated to providing hiking and driving trails to these places that inspired America’s first great landscape paintings, the recently expanded trail has now more than doubled in size to 17 sites in New York, two each in New Hampshire and Wyoming, and one in Massachusetts. A new website offers a virtual tour of the painting sites, comparing the actual paintings with photographs of the views as they appear today. As the sites have been permanently preserved, the majority of the views are remarkably similar to the 19th-century paintings. Often, several artists painted the same view, enabling a comparison of the artists’ styles and choices.
The nine new sites in New York offer the following views:
- From Jasper Cropsey’s home at the Newington Cropsey Foundation, Hastings on Hudson
- Across Mohonk Lake near the Mohonk Mountain House, New Paltz
- Of the Shawangunk Mountains from Eagle Cliff near Artist Rock, Mohonk Mountain House, New Paltz
- Of the Shawangunk Mountains from Skytop with Eagle Cliff in the foreground, Mohonk Mountain House, New Paltz
- Of Skytop across Lake Mohonk, Mohonk Mountain House, New Paltz
- Of the Hudson River and Catskill Mountains from Vanderbilt Mansion National Historic Site, Hyde Park
- Of the Hudson River from Hasbrouck Park, Kingston
- Of the Hudson River from Croton Point State Park, Croton-on-Hudson
- Of the Hudson River from the City of Hudson.
The remaining sites, in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Wyoming, reflect the travels of Hudson River School artists:
- The view of the Connecticut River from Mt. Holyoke, South Hadley, Massachusetts
- Echo Lake at Franconia Notch in the White Mountains, Franconia, New Hampshire
- Crawford Notch in the White Mountains, White Mountain National Forest, New Hampshire
- Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone National Park, Mammoth, Wyoming
- Lower Geyser Basin in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming
Explore America’s back routes and pastoral scenery through the eyes of those who saw the beauty in the untouched glory of mountains, rivers, and forests. Consider a trip along the Hudson River Art School trail for a stay-cation this summer or for fall foliage.
