The Hudson River School of Art and the rise of American Environmentalism

The Hudson River School of Art refers to a group of American romantic landscape painters of the mid-nineteenth century. Many of the School's artists were influenced by Archibald Alison's book, Essay on the Nature and Principles of Taste, which took the position that the beauty and grandeur of unspoiled nature can inspire good moral qualities. They were also heavily influenced by the writings of Emerson and Thoreau.

Artists of the Hudson River School painted the Hudson River Valley, as well as scenes from the Catskills, Berkshires, and White Mountains, the pre-settlement American West, Mexico and other places. In the earlier years of the School's existence, the artists' favorite haunts were largely unspoiled, and highly valued for their aesthetic beauty. The American parks system was established in part in response to the enthusiasm for America's wilderness inspired by the works of the Hudson River School.

As the years passed, however, industry changed the landscape, and the canvases of Hudson River School painters reflected these changes. The American environmental movement began in part in the drawing rooms of wealthy art patrons dismayed to see the changing nature of the landscapes on their walls.

Paintings from top down:

~ The Lackawanna Valley, George Inness, (c. 1855)

~ View of the Hudson River from West Point, Thomas Doughty, (1793-1856)

~ Kindred Spirits, Asher Brown Durand, (1853)