Mesmerizing Autumn Landscapes from the Hudson River School

The Hudson River School

The Hudson River School was the first major American artistic movement from the mid-19th century. Although the name takes after the river in New York State, artists went as far as South America and Europe to portray stunning views of the natural world. The painters of this school marveled at the landscapes they saw in places that were yet to be colonized and forever altered by human intervention.

The Painter of Autumn

Jasper Francis Cropsey (1823–1900) is known as “The Painter of Autumn” for his extraordinary depiction of the American landscape during fall. He created this autumnal view with such detail that each tree species is recognizable, from elms to maples and American chesnuts. The canvas is big, measuring 60 in. tall by 108 in. wide (152 x 274 cm). The sun hides behind clouds, but the way the light shines and covers the canvas is majestic. Although the focus of this work is nature, humans have entered the space. Cropsey added boats and a small group of people sitting near the pond in the lower-left corner of the canvas, enjoying, like us, the magnificent view in front of them.

Valley of the Catawissa in Autumn

Thomas Moran (1837–1926) embarked on an expedition to Catawissa, a town near the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania, in 1861. A year later, he painted this view of the valley. Moran omitted the railroad that passed through the area, a notable choice since he traveled there to illustrate the Catawissa Railroad for an article at Harper’s Magazine. Many Hudson River School artists lamented the loss of the American natural landscape as men and technology spoiled it, which may have influenced Moran to restore the view to its state before the railroad existed.

Waterville Pond in Autumn

Albert Bierstadt (1830–1902) painted several autumnal landscapes throughout his career. This one depicts his property in Waterville, New York. The brushstrokes are much freer than the ones in Cropsey and Moran’s paintings. In fact, he only used a handful of them to form the fence and cows in the foreground and the ducks in the pond. A closer look at the trees reveals just one or two touches of paint for each leaf. The canvas is well balanced by complementary colors: the orange of the autumn leaves and the blue of the sky and water.

Susie M. Barstow’s Autumnal Views

Susie M. Barstow (1836–1923) was an adventurer. Coming from an upper-middle-class family, she traveled around the world, from the mountains of Maine to Japan, taking in all the landscapes she saw. She also enjoyed hiking the highest peaks she encountered, hence the inclusion of mountains in many of her paintings. Mountain Lake in Autumn shows us a landscape in the process of transformation, with some trees already changing colors, while others retain their greenery. Autumn was a recurrent season in her works of equal or smaller format.

Laura Woodward’s Autumn

Another woman artist from the Hudson River School was Laura Woodward (1834–1926). Her most famous works come from the later part of her career, when she moved to Florida in the 1880s. However, she was already an accomplished landscape artist in New York before moving south. Like Barstow, she hiked mountains such as the Catskill and Adirondack Mountains in New York, the White Mountains in New Hampshire, and the Green Mountains in Vermont, looking for incomparable views for her artworks. In contrast to the other works listed here, the scope is much smaller. It is as if we zoomed in on another painting to see the waterfall in detail.

Thomas Cole’s Dramatic Autumn

Lastly, here is an autumn landscape by one of the most important painters of the Hudson River School and one of its founders. Thomas Cole (1801–1848) emigrated to the United States in 1819 and brought the British landscape tradition with him. He made two versions of the same falls. The one above gives the viewer a lateral view of the falls and is framed at the top by the ceiling of a cave, as if the viewer were standing inside.

Meanwhile, the one below takes the viewer to the front of the waterfall, where they get a clearer view of the oncoming storm. The weather conditions are much more dramatic than the other, rather peaceful environments of his American colleagues. Cole also added a tiny human figure standing at the top, a bit to the left of the waterfall. This man evidences the size and strength of the natural world around him, emphasizing its sublimity.

Autumn has always captivated landscape artists. It might be the way the leaves transform and color an entire wood in oranges, reds, and yellows. It is the perfect opportunity to expand the palette and play with it. Perhaps it is also the visual representation of change that adds meaning to a piece. We are lucky to have such works of art, and that they allow us to enjoy nature as few can. If these autumn landscapes made you want to bring a little of their beauty home, take a look at our landscape postcard set.