A stunning array of over 40 paintings created between 1818 and 1886, The Poetry of Nature illustrates America’s scenic splendor as seen through the eyes of over 25 leading Hudson River School artists, including Thomas Cole, Asher B. Durand, John F. Kensett, Albert Bierstadt, as well as lesser-known but important artists Josephine Walters, Christopher Pearse Cranch, and Louisa Davis Minot, among others. Its display at the NBMAA will include the addition of works by Robert S. Duncanson, the first Black artist of the Hudson River School to gain international acclaim. Drawn from the collection of the New-York Historical Society, the exhibition explores the exchange of influence among this group of artists, their favored sketching grounds, and the legacy of Hudson River School painting today.
In the context of this exhibition, the NBMAA will highlight contemporary perspectives on land use, the environment, and landscape painting in America through related programming, and by welcoming contemporary artists and scholars to reflect upon the legacy of the Hudson River School and what it means within our world today. Additionally, the exhibition will take place concurrent to the Bicentennial of Frederick Law Olmsted’s birth (April 2022), and will provide a rich platform for programming that will further explore how artists and landscape architects depicted and shaped the American landscape in the 1800s.
Image: Albert Bierstadt (1830-1902), “Autumn Woods, Oneida County, State of New York,” ca. 1886. Oil on linen. New-York Historical Society, Gift of Mrs. Albert Bierstadt, 1910.11
