Monday, February 27, 2012

This painting was painted by the great artist Thomas Cole. Cole was an English born American born on February first 1801. In 1818 his family immigrated to America and settled in the Ohio and young Thomas was fascinated by nature. Thomas then traveled to the New York were he began painting paintings of the Hudson river and the Catskills mountains. Then in 1826 he was excepted into the American Academy of Fine arts, were he continued painting beautiful paintings of nature. Cole is well known for his landscape paintings but he also is known to have painted allegorical works. We see this in his five painting series were he paints the rise of a empire and the fall of a empire. He started painting the course of a empire in 1833 and finished it in 1836. Thomas Cole would continue to paint beautiful and inspirational paintings and would die on February eleventh in the year 1848.

This is a painting titled Tywkiwdbi and was painted by Thomas Cole. It is a painting of Native Americans practicing a ritual on a mountain top. The painting probably took place on the Appalachian moutain trail somewhere near the area where the bear mountain crosses the Hudson river today. This painting has many romantic features. The Native Americans in this picture are small and are on a huge cliff top ,and appear to be conducting a ritual. The people in this painting are suppose to look small so that the scenery in the painting can look spectacular and majestic. The Hudson river isn't the man focus but plays a huge role in the painting. The Hudson river in this painting is suppose to show how vast the new land was. The main focus off the painting is the mountains and Cole is trying to show how majestic this land was.

This is a beautiful painting and has a great rhythm and balance to it. Your eyes are attracted to brightness and in this painting their are no dramatic colors and is a mellow painting. Your focus is directed to the top of the painting in the ski, then your focus is directed to the middle. In the middle yo see the top of the mountains and the Native Americans conducting and ritual. Then your focus is directed to the bottom of the painting. The bottom of the painting has dark colors and you see a massive cliff. This is a great painting and is extremely united. The painting Units the beauty of nature with the mountains and the river, and unifies nature with people with the native Americans on the mountain.

Friday, February 17, 2012

Albert Bierstadt

Albert Bierstadt was a German-American painter, who was best known for his lavish, sweeping landscapes of the American West. In his works, Bierstadt joined several journeys of the westward expansion. Even though he was not the first artist to record these sites, Bierstadt was the probably the best painter of these scenes for the rest of the 19th century.

The painting has a good amount of light that shows it is not complete daylight but also not complete darkness. It is a very different kind of picture that portrayed something that was going to happen. It was a little bit of a darker romantic picture but it is beautiful and admirable. Half of the painting is light and the other half is almost dark because the storm is coming so it is starting to get a little bit more gloomy.

The focus of the painting makes your eyes go to right at to above the lake looking at the circular trees in the middle because it is the center and it attracts attention. Also, the animals on the small peninsula look as if they are very small to make the rest of the scene look huge.

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The Last of the Buffalo


This Painting, named "The Last of the Buffalo," was painted by Albert Bierstadt. Albert Bierdtadt was born January 7th 1830, he was a German-American painter and is known for his huge, detailed landscapes. He traveled West a number of times and painted many pictures of the journey as well as the landscapes he saw.

The picture is an image of a native american hunter on horseback trying to kill a buffalo. Buffalo was the Natives main food supply and they were constantly following the herd and hunting, so much so that eventually the buffalo population died out. the painting uses dark coloring for the valley in the back round, while in the front it is brighter, almost like a stage light shining on the main event in the picture. You can also see in the back round of other animals that look like there trying to escape from the hunter.

The balance of the picture is pretty even, more to the right you see the hunter trying to kill the buffalo while to the side you see a buffalo standing there, almost as if watching. In the center of the picture there is also the skeleton of a buffalo, almost capturing the mood of the picture and making the idea of death more prevalent.

Frederic Edwin Church, Twilight Wilderness



Frederic Edwin Church was born on May 4, 1826 in Hartford, Connecticut. He painted landscapes. He was wealthy due to his fathers profession as a silversmith and watchmaker. He became the student of Thomas Cole at the age of eighteen and learned a lot from him. He lived in New York and painted a lot of the scenery around him. He died on April 7, 1900.

In this painting,"Twilight Wilderness", the colors are on the dark side. The lines are wavy and curved. The colors are dark because of the sunset in order to set the mood. The shapes are all organic because the picture is of nature. The texture appears to be smooth.

The rhythm is from left to right because the colors get darker and darker as to go across. The focus is on the mountains because they are darker than everything else. The emphasis is on the water and trees. There is unity and balance in the painting with the mountains on one side and the tall trees on the other. I like this painting because of the colors used and the way the mountains stand out because of the darkness of them.

Thursday, February 16, 2012

The Coming Storm

This picture was painted by Albert Bierstadt. It was put in the Addison Gallery of American Art in Andover in 1869 the same year that the transcontinental railroad was completed. It was a very different kind of picture that portrayed something that was going to happen. It was a little bit of a darker romantic picture but it is beautiful and admirable. The painting makes me want to look at the lake. The animals make the scenery look a lot bigger and more majestic.

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Albert Bierstadt

Albert Bierstadt was born on January 7, 1830. He was a German American painter and was best known for his landscapes of the American West. He joined several journeys of the Westward Expansion. He was the foremost painter of his scenes for most of the 19th century.  He was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts in 1833. He taught drawing and painting briefly before devoting himself to painting. He began making paintings in New England and upstate New York. He did a lot of traveling to different parts of the U.S.A. His paintings were very unique making everything organized and perfect. His paintings were very unique. In 1882, his studio in Irvington, New York was destroyed by fire, with many of his pictures.

  •      Its a satisfying painting of life in the south back in the day.
  •       The painter wants us to look at the bright sunset and texture of the sky and atmosphere.
  • ·         It looks like a cowboy life in a canyon of some sort.
  • ·         There is a group of livestock and many other animals
  • ·         Also people on horseback herding the animals
  • ·         It looks like they are on a trail.
  • ·         There is a reflection of the sunset on the little ponds making it beautiful scenery.
  • ·         It was painted by Albert Bierstadt.
  • ·         The texture and lines are very intriguing. They show the difference in the mountain shape and the difference in tree.
  • ·         The shapes of the trees and animals show the measure and texture of the painting.

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Classical Landscape With Ruins


Robert Duncanson was an African American Painter that came from Hudson River School. I see all the textures of this picture, giving the smoothness of the plants and trees but also the roughness of the buildings, the historical facts. The way the buildings give it a historic and rustic feel, giving this a very romantic theme. The back round shows that this front picture a higher view, this looks like a valley and a small waterfall. Also in the sky looking like a sunset just ended in the horizon.

Landscape with Ruined Tower


Thomas Cole was an English-born American artist. He is regarded as the founder of the Hudson River School, an American art movement that flourished in the mid-19th century. Cole's Hudson River School, as well as his own work, was known for its realistic and detailed portrayal of American landscape and wilderness, which feature themes of romanticism and naturalism.

"Sunny Morning on Hudson River"


This painting was created by Cole, the founder of the Hudson River School. Cole was born in England and came to America when he was 18 years of age. He came to America to work was an engraver for his father's wallpaper company. Later this year he became interested in painting. In 1825, he created many images that attracted attention from not only American citizens but from the whole world. He created the above painting and many others in the same year depicting a more majestic side of the Hudson River that no one had painted before. This painting gives more of a relaxed theme to the Hudson River. These paintings were unique and more realistic rather than abstract.

Spirit of War- Jasper Francis

This picture has very vivid colors that complement each other in many ways. The brightness of the sky does a great job contrasting with the dark forest and the clouds of the sky. The people in the painting are very small but still have some presence in the painting. Likewise the castle in the painting is not huge nor small but an average size that adds some mysterious awe to the size of it. The mountains in the background are made to be emphasized with the brightness of them compared to the rest of the painting.

The Catskills

Asher Brown Durand was born August 21, 1796 in Maplewood, New Jersey. He was an American painter of the Hudson River School. His interest shifted from engraving to oil painting. In 1837 he accompanied his friend Thomas Cole on a sketching expedition to Schroon Lake in the Adirondacks. He spent summers sketching in the Catskills, Adirondacks, and the White Mountains of New Hampshire making hundreds of drawing and oil sketches that were later incorporated into finished pieces which helped define the Hudson River School.

In this painting you can see the beautiful aspect of nature. Asher Durand really shows how beautiful the nature is. The painting really brings your attention to the trees and eventual cliff. The bright colors of nature bring a happy mood to the painting. As you look into the horizon you see the decreasing low view of the mountains. You can see the valley and mountains in the background. Another thing that this picture brings to your attention is the ground and the detail of Earth's ground. As you look at the painting the direction of the trees almost make your eyes circulate around the border of the painting.

The focus of this picture is the center of the picture, towards the valley. The light from the right of the picture brings your attention to the mountains and the valley. The brightness of the picture and the frame work really bring your attention to the middle of the picture. The trees frame the the center and try and bring your eyes to the middle of the screen. The rhythm of the picture is right to left as the first thing you will notice is the detail in the tree. The light balance of light and dark brings out the attention and beauty of the bright valley.

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Thomas Cole


Thomas Cole was an English born American artist. He is the founder of the Hudson River School, which was an American art movement in the 19th century. He painted wilderness and landscapes, with styles of romanticism and naturalism.
This painting captures the water's beauty in this scene, and at the same time, captures its strong waves against the shore rocks. There are no people portrayed. The rhythm of the painting forces my eyes to follow the wave of the water, then up to the bright sky, then back to where the water is breaking.
The lines of the water suggests flowing water. The rocky shore seems to be pointy and rugged in feel. The texture suggests a quiet feel.

Thomas Doughty, Ruins in Landscape, 1828

Thomas Doughty, born July 19, 1793, was an artist of the Hudson River school. He was a landscapist and contributed to the interest of the Americans in landscape. He was known for his quiet and atmospheric landscape paintings of rivers and mountains in New York, Pennsylvania, New England, and the Hudson River Valley.
The painting shows many greens around the center. The trees closest to you are very detailed and can see how rough their bark is, how soft the leaves are, and the roughness of the dirt on the lower right-hand side. The water is shown to reflect. The people are getting off the boat on the right side.
The painting itself first caught my attention with nature around the bottom half of the picture and the sky around the top half. As you go deeper into the middle, you travel across the river to the center of it and see the ruins of a man-made building. to the left of it is more trees and to the right of are more trees that are far off into the distance also surrounding the ruins with the sky above everything.The rhythm leads me to the center. The top and bottom halves balance out for me to look at the river and scan the house's left and right side.

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Thomas Doughty


Thomas Doughty, who was much recognized as "one of the pioneers of our landscape Art," was born in Philadelphia in July 19, 1793. He was the first American artist to work in landscapes. His landscape paintings reflects the influence of English school of landscaping. One of the painting named Denning's Point, Hudson River, which is shown above, exemplifies how his drawings had quiet and pastoral landscape of nineteenth century.
The color of this picture has light values which implies more of a calmness of the background. In the background, which is the Hudson River, there are tiny sailing boat and vigorous green nature. This painting has the smooth texture.
The focus is in the mountains beyond the river and the trees that are shown. It has the curves with different proportion of heights at the end. It has the balance for its dark sides in the ends and focus in the middle.

Shoshone Falls

Albert Bierstadt Yellow Stone Park
He was born in Germany and soon moved to Massachusetts in 1833. He developed a taste for early when he was little and began to sketch in his youth. His paintings sold for high prices and people were never disappointed with his works.
When I first look at this painting my eyes are pulled to the bright light and it shows something that would mean a heaven. Than the contrast becomes dark showing how everyone should go forth to the heaven.

Thomas Hill

Thomas Hill was born in England. At the age of 15, his family moved to America and settled in Massachusetts. As a student, he went to the White Mountains of New Hampshire and drew with members of The Hudson River School. He made yearly trips to Yosemite Valley. He died in 1908.
This painting is called "Mount Lafayette in Winter". It shows very good texture and colors. The colors are bright in the places that the author wants us to look at first. This creates a very good pattern. It makes us feel like we are walking through the woods.
The picture has very good composition. It shows all the vital things that you would see in the woods during the winter season. It also has a good balance between nature and landscape. The shows great rhythm. It makes you look at certain things like you would if you were actually walking through the woods. The focus of this painting is the two deer.

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

A Gorge in the Mountains

This painting painted by Sanford Robinson Gifford was painted to show the beautiful view of the valley. The depth perception of the mountains truly bring a romantic scenery. Another key aspect to the romantic painting is the sun. As the light illuminates the valley and the sky it sets a cheery and happy mood. What really makes this art piece special is the horizon line, and how everything is drawn off of it. It brings your attention to the mountains and trees.
This picture shows the troubled times of the people who went on the Oregon trail. It depicts the end of a long day of travel as they are just about to stop and rest for the night. They are unpacking the luggage.

Monday, February 6, 2012

Sunny Morning on Hudson River


This picture makes me feel calm. It makes me want to just sit down and relax for a few days; not doing anything, not answering anything, all to myself. It makes me think of what could be beyond my line of sight, metaphorically and literally. This painting gives a positive outlook on life and what is to come. This painting was painted by Thomas Cole who was the founder of the Hudson River School. He was born in England in 1801 and came to America when he was 18 to become a worker at his father's wallpaper company. He later became interested in painting and created the above image "Sunny Morning on Hudson River" two years later in 1827.

Hudson River Painting-Tywkiwdbi

This is a painting titled Tywkiwdbi and was painted by Thomas Cole. It is a painting of Native Americans practicing a ritual on a mountain top. The painting probably took place on the Appalachian moutain trail somewhere near the area where the bear mountain crosses the Hudson river today. This painting has many romantic features. The Native Americans in this picture are small and are on a huge cliff top ,and appear to be conducting a ritual. The people in this painting are suppose to look small so that the scenery in the painting can look spectacular and majestic. The Hudson river isn't the man focus but plays a huge role in the painting. The Hudson river in this painting is suppose to show how vast the new land was. The main focus off the painting is the mountains and Cole is trying to show how majestic this land was.







View of The United States

This is a beautiful painting of America, the water is raging while everything around it is calm. The child is fishing in the picture and is simply standing on a rock in the middle of the water. They painting fades off in the back and is absolutely amazing. The sun is light and not to bright in the back. This picture really captures America in its early time. Created by Thomas Cole
Thomas Cole's painting depicts his beloved Catskills. The hillside lies bare like an open wound. Haphazard tree stumps and livestock lead you to sawmills in the distance. 'Catskill Scenery,' 1833, oil on canvas, Saint Louis Art Museum (Saint Louis, Missouri, United States). (Artrenewal.org)
This is Thomas Cole's painting, "Catskill Scenery" . It has many great examples of Romanticism. Such as the rationalism and realism of the landscape. The land has been cleared out out of trees and is starting to take shape into a town and saw mill as you can see in the background. the romantic era saw a rise in industrialism.This painting shows a hillside covered in tree stumps and a new settlement starting to sprout up. It is a true product of the era it was produced in.
Title: Stranded Ship by Asher Durand.
The image shown here is a picture of a boat that appears to be crashing over during rough seas. The message of this image might be that the situation is very rough right now, as the high seas explained. However, there is a ray of sunlight int he background which could signalize that something good is going to happen or can serve as a sign of hope. The feeling I get is that something good always comes out of the bad. You might be stuck now, but the tavles will hopefully turn and change for the better. Additionally, the image also gives us a chance to take in nature and tie that in with a particular story from American Romanticism.
Mark Cristaldi

Hudson River

This shows the Hudson river in between land and a mountain. This painting shows depth and gives me the ability to immerse myself within the picture. I like the details of the nature and how it looks lighter and more faded over the distance. The painting's details and depth made me want to examin the whole thing.

The Expulsion from the Garden of Eden by Thomas Cole

"The Expulsion from the Garden of Eden" was drew by Thomas Cole to demonstrate the beauties when America was in wilderness, settling in new land of God's glory.
In this Expulsion, Cole portrayed both wildness and beauty. It may have seemed as a Garden of Eden which God created to the painter.
This picture reveals the passion and beauty with the mysterious light in the center of the picture. On the other hand, the dark clouds shows how interference to the beauty.

The Stranded Ship by Asher Durand


This picture shows the dramatic scene of the ship wreck right at the shore of the island. The setting shows the waves being aggressive to the ship. The damage of the ship fills the drama within the setting. The state of the nature causes a very violent scene within the waves and the environment in the waters. The ship wrecks because of the violent waves and the obstacles between land and the ship. I feel that this picture shows a very sorrowful setting because of the action towards the waves, has this ship crashing into the shore. Giving damage and possible casualties to the ship and the crew controlling the ship.

Romantic Painting Stuart KirbyFrederick Church, "Aurora Borealis"

This is a dramatic scene from a ship at sea looking at the norther lights. This shows the ship being calmly pushed through the passage way and shows a very relaxed and beautiful view. The state of nature is calm with the waves not being very violent and it looking like a very calm night.

Winter Landscape, Valley of the Catskills



This picture is called Winter Landscape, Valley of the Catskills and is painted by Charles Herbert Moore. The romantic aspect of this painting is the valley below and the mountains far in the view. the artist includes details with the added snow on the trees shows nature as benevolent. Nature is pictured as subtle and gentle in this picture. The painting gives a peaceful feeling to a viewer and makes them feel comfortable.
Eli Manning