By Brooke Howard

Art is the way an artist expresses his/her feelings just like an author writes in order to express theirs. During the life of the famous author Nathaniel Hawthorne (1803-1864), two prominent art movements were in effect, the Hudson River School and The Barbizon School. Nathaniel Hawthorne and the artists of the time both expressed feelings in their masterpieces and used history and local surroundings in order to complete their works. Both of the art movements during Hawthorne’s times dealt with landscape paintings and portraying the astounding beauty of the wildernesses’ natural resources.

The Hudson River School was a group of American landscape artists that was founded in 1835 and flourished up until 1870. This movement began when Nathaniel Hawthorne was in his early 30’s and it was led by Thomas Cole. The first works to come from the Hudson River School were completed by Thomas Cole and Asher B. Durand (Hudson River School 1). Most of the artwork that was done during this time was of the Hudson River Valley and the new west. The painter’s were awed by the magnificent natural resources and the potential that America’s wilderness held, and they were able to display this in dramatic landscape portraits (Hudson River School 3). Many of their artworks portrayed a New World wilderness. This New World showed how man was tiny compared to the great vastness of the world; however they also showed that man was able to maintain a divine spark that completed the cycle of harmony (Hudson River School 2). The painters thought that art was a driving force of spiritual and moral transformation. Painting was also believed to be a medium that linked the mind of the universe to the mind of humankind (Hudson River School 3). Many of the paintings completed by the artists were also romantic landscape images, which weren’t surprising, considering that some of the Hudson River School was also a branch of the latter part of the Romanticism art movement. Romanticism was a style that was individualistic, emotional, and deeply-felt. A major goal in American art for the Hudson River painters was to define a distinct vision for it. The artist Thomas Cole would go out and sketch directly from nature, and then he would go back to his studio to paint on his canvasses. A style that he used was tactile brushwork, which allowed the paintings to be perceived by the sense of touch, and he also used atmospheric lighting in order to paint many of his works. Many of his paintings seemed to “just breathe” so to speak (Hudson River School 4). The Hudson River School art movement later led to a subspecialty known as Luminism. The Hudson River painters used light effects to portray details such as mists and sunsets. The light effects were borrowed and used in Luminism (Hudson River School 5).

Another important movement during Nathaniel Hawthorne’s time was the Barbizon School. It was founded in 1830 and flourished until around 1870. This informal school involved French landscape painting and it got its name from the village of Barbizon. The men in the group reacted against classical landscape and instead they began painting with regards to a direct study of nature. The prominent member of the group was Theodore Rousseau (Barbizon School 1). Other leaders of the Barbizon school were Georges Michel, Jean-Francois Millet, and Corot. Millet devoted his paintings to farming scenes, while Courbet painted scenes with woodmen, poachers, grave-diggers, or workers (Darmon 8). Most of these painters were originally farmers and they were rejected from major Paris Salons of their time. As a result, these men began to revolt against the industrial society. The evidence of their rebellion lies in many of their paintings. Rosseau especially portrayed cities as polluting and destroying rivers and forests (Darmon 9). These painters can be seen as ecologists searching for a sense of country and fresh air in the turmoil of polluting cities (Darmon 10). Even though these artists were very talented, the French public was not a huge fan of the Barbizon School, probably because of all the rebelling that was evident in their paintings (Darmon 11). However, these French landscape painters greatly influenced American painters, and many of their artworks were very popular in America (Barbizon School 1).

Two major art movements were evident in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s time period. An American art movement was the Hudson River School, and a French movement was the Barbizon School. Both of these informal schools painted landscape portraits. They both wanted to show a true representation of the astonishing beauty of nature. However, many of the Barbizon school paintings were rebelling against cities and the industrial society. Art is forever changing, and one art movement always leads to another. A prime example of this is the way in whichthe Barbizon School influenced many American painters and also helped to lead to the creation of The Hudson River School.

 

Works Cited

“Barbizon School.” The Columbia Encyclopedia. Sixth Ed. 2001. 9 April 2003.
< http://www.bartleby.com/65/ba/Barbizon.html>.

Darmon, Adrian. “The School of Barbizon.” Artcult. March 1999. 9 April 2003.
< http://www.artcult.com/barbia.htm>.

“Hudson River School.” Ed. Thomas Hampson. I Hear America Singing. PBS Online.
9 April 2003 < http://www.pbs.org/wnet/ihas/icon/hudson.html>.