About the Artist

Jasper Cropsey was born on a small working farm in Staten Island. Cropsey was a sickly boy took to his bed for weeks at a time. It was during these periods of convalesce that he learned to sketch. Jasper Francis Cropsey is best known for his dramatic panoramas and his skill at capturing the splendor of  autumn. His paintings convey an almost spiritual reverence for the American landscape.

The Hudson River School

1825-1875

The Hudson River School was a mid-19th century American art movement founded by Thomas Cole in 1825. The style was heavily influenced by European romanticism. The artists shared common design aesthetics uniting them as a school despite their individual styles. The painters focused on the American wilderness, particularly the Hudson River Valley as well as the Catskill Mountains and Adirondack Mountains. The paintings were daring and dramatic reflecting the wilderness environment. The artists moved their studios out of doors and sketched directly from nature focusing on the drama of light and shadow. Many paintings depict a wild terrain, dramatic sunrise or ominous black storm clouds brewing on the horizon. The works were meticulously detailed and often colossal in size.

The mid 1850s was a time of extraordinary expansion for the new nation, and the Hudson River painters depicted the vastness and beautify of a country proud of its natural resources. They  embraced nature and showed a remarkable attention to detail within the natural landscape. This school promoted the concept of  Manifest Destiny and came to symbolize American vigor, liberty and autonomy. Today, works by the Hudson River school artists are treasured as the first uniquely American school of art and for their beauty and significance to art, history and culture

Key Descriptive Words  and Phrases associated with the Hudson River School-  unspoiled nature, atmospheric lighting, primeval landscape, theatrical, Catskill, Berkshire, White Mountains, Walt Whitman, American Transcendentalists, spiritual transformation, dramatic instincts, large scale canvasses, Luminas, Romantic school, wilderness, New York, symbolic language, realism,  Western Expansion and Manifest Destiny.

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