This collection of SocialGalactic art posts is another pairing of Americans and Russians. The Band has noticed that putting traditions together like this makes it easier to pick up on how they work. It's clear all these artists are working in the same large concept of art. Their materials, subjects, techniques, and basic ideas are all pretty much the same. But when you see enough of them, you start to notice subtle similarities within the groups and differences between them that are hard to put into words. Americans and Russians make a good pair because they have a lot in common. Very different histories, but both on the edge of Europe in important ways. So they are both able to master those Western practices, but from unique, partial-outsider perspectives.
Frederick Remington, Taint on the Wind, 1906
Both view the land with reverence. The Russians have more sense of timelessness and the Americans restless progress - as you'd expect from their histories. Remember - real art expresses culture. But it's also stylistic. Textures, the way light is handled - a feel that you can come to recognize. Exposure is how connoisseurs develop their skills - it used to take money and connections just to see the necessary art. Now we can look at thousands of paintings online. It's not the same as being able to study the real things, but we aren't trying to be connoisseurs. But it's perfect - historically unprecedented - for reconnecting with and understanding our stolen cultural legacy
Hudson River School
Good selection of the wider school, including a few artists we haven't seen yet. The Hudson River School is a much larger and more long-lived group than you'd think from the "histories". They got their start in the region they're named for with a Romantic-flavored style that celebrated the magnificence of the landscape. There was a spiritual dimension as well - the beauty of logos in Creation as a sign of the divine Logos of the Creator. It's not an inherently false or inverted notion and they were capable of great beauty. But it's easy to see how it could subvert into glorifying the material, and that's the pattern to all the secular transcendences - Manifest Destiny, City on the Hill, Magic Dirt - that led to the current predicament.
The second generation of Hudson River School artists expanded their range. Many went west - Bierstadt and Moran's visions of the American West are treasures. Trips overseas and to South America added more material for some - Church was famous for his travelling. Herzog painted in Florida, Gifford and Whittredge in Europe, and so forth. What never changes is the combination of natural beauty with a sublime - almost metaphysical - feel. This is a group that really needs it's history worked out - the way the Modernist scribblers have been tracked to the minutest degree.
Thomas Moran, Sunset, Amagansett, 1905
Golden sunset fills the sky with liquid light. Hudson River School’s Moran combines intensity & timelessness.
The contrast with the dark foreground makes it easy to miss the detail.
Thomas Worthington Whittredge, The Meadow, 19th century
Underrated American painter continues the hot summer theme.
Light changes with the seasonal movements of the sun. Whittredge captures the feeling of the dog days.
Frederic Edwin Church, The Cross in the Wilderness, 1857
Sunday with an American variation on the Romantic theme where land & faith are one
The cross faces the light opposite still water & dark rock. Across the great divide.
Thomas Cole, Expulsion Moon and Firelight, 1828
Sunday morning spectacle from a Hudson River School founder. Try & spot Adam & Eve.
Timely reminder there’s a reason the world is a chaotic Fallen mess. And there’s only one solution.
John William Casilear, Lake George, 1860
Dark trees to the left guide the eye into a vision of early morning light.
The Hudson River School painters were drawn to Lake George for its scenic mix of mountains, woods & water.
Albert Bierstadt, A Rest on the Ride, 1863
Vast spaces shaped American notions of freedom & progress. They are drawn forward to the light.
Some aspects of national identity never came to grips with the end of the frontier.
Jasper Francis Cropsey, William Penn’s Wedding, 1870
American Sunday painting reminds us of the connection between community & faith.
The cohesion of traditional communities can be hard for atomized modern people to grasp.
Francis A. Silva, Sunrise at Tappan Zee, 1874
Good morning SG. American Luminist painter with a liquid sunrise over the Hudson.
When you consider what America started with, the Fallen nature of the world becomes obvious.
Jervis McEntee, Twilight, 19th century
American painters were drawn to the vast American landscape. This distinguished them from the Europeans.
Sunset across the fields & behind the mountains. A distinctly American vision.
Frederic Edwin Church, Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives, 1870
For Sunday, a Hudson River School take on the Holy Land.
Note the turbulent skies, the light breaking in from above, and remember what happened there.
Worthington Whittredge, Second Beach, Newport, 1865
Sunset colors glow off wet sand. It’s almost photographic, but is much older than color photography.
Muted tones make the setting sun seem bright. The beauty of subtlety.
Other American
You can see the variety in the maturing American scene - what might have been without modernism. Genre scenes and Americana, landscapes of different types, skilled lighting and atmosphere, techniques to copy natual conditions, strong individual styles. The Hudson River School influence is clear, but without being overpowering - how healthy traditions work. What's important is not to despair. Modernism was a crime against humanity and it can be breathtaking in a bad way when the magnitude sinks in. But we're looking at the pictures. Nice reproductions with a quality and ease of access unimaginable even a generation ago. The beauty that we're collecting and sharing would not have been possible before now.
Collectors, galleries, dealers, and other less glamorous parts of the art economy - the real parts that aren't globalist salients in the culture war - did a good job of keeping this stuff. They didn't write the book and histories that makes it easy to understand, but they kept records of ownership and took good pictures. It's all still there. And we get to pick it up.
George McCord, Florida Sunrise, 1880
Good morning SG with a great American sunrise.
The glorious colors behind dark foliage is dramatic. But the glare of the sun is realistically blinding & you can feel the heat in the air.
Louis Aston Knight, The Old Mill, early 20th century
American painter with a tranquil scene & a timely lesson.
Societies can’t withstand supporting huge populations who don’t do any kind of productive work.
Roman mob 2.0
George Inness, Spring, 19th century
American painter shows the working side of spring rebirth.
People & organic communities that produce their own food have a closer relationship to the rhythm of the seasons.
John Joseph Enneking, Spring Hillside, 19th century
Loose technique can capture the impact of something very detailed. Just as the eye loses resolution with distance.
Like the vitality and color of a spring hillside.
George Caleb Bingham, Fur Traders Descending the Missouri, 1845
Frozen moment in American history.
Skillful contrast. Tranquil sky & water seem timeless but the men real characters. The cat on the leash brings it to life.
Martin Johnson Heade, Girls in an Orchard, 1875
American painter with a picture of Spring rebirth.
Along with the appearance of a flowering orchard, he captures the feeling of vital energy bursting into colorful new life.
William Trost Richards, Moonlight on Mount Lafayette, NH, 1873
American watercolor where the light seems to sparkle & hang in the air.
Richards - a realist - gets the low-light color, but there’s a fantasy quality to this.
Hugh Bolton Jones, Early Spring, Near Sheffield, MA, 19th century
Seasonal painting from an American who does a great job with the immature foliage.
The clear light and dark water are also perfect for the time of year.
Frederick Remington, Taint on the Wind, 1906
The painter of the American West with that sense that something is amiss.
The threat of the frontier was the appeal - you were on your own. A more honest arrangement in many ways.
Cleveland Rockwell, Smoky Sunrise Astoria Harbor, 1882
Fires have always made the air hazy. The silver lining? Spectacular light effects.
Like a sunrise off the Oregon coast looking like the coal smoke of Grimshaw’s London
Sydney Laurence, Mt McKinley Twilight Mist, 1920
Alaska artist with a misty vision of NA’s highest mountain.
The dark detail in the foreground & fainter mountain create an impression of great distance and majestic scale.
Lowel Birge Harrison, Moonrise on the Beach, 1913
American painter uses cool colors to set a mood. Quiet, but evocative. And moods open unexpected paths.
It’s less about what it shows you and more what it calls to mind.
Robert Wood, Bluebonnet Ranch, 1930s
Texas artist with a rolling field of flowers. Note the modern date.
Blurry technique can simulate fine detail over large areas. Too much data to paint, but if cued, the brain fills it in.
George Inness, Sunrise in the Woods, 1887
American painter captures the blurry vision and hazy depth of an intense sunrise through the trees.
Comes close to abstraction to get that odd mix of brightness and dark shadow.
Russians
The Russian painters continue to be a revelation. These guys are almost completely absent from the historical summaries - Russia somehow jumps from Orthodox icons to the IQ test of Constructivist atavists like Malevich. While in reality it was home to a vibrant tradition of the highest levels of skill and deep appreciation of land and people. Aivazovsky, Shishkin, and Klever are familiar, but they bring some new friends in this collection. What they all share is that feeling of life and energy bursting out from canvas. We're so glad to have found these guys. Needless to say, the entire history has yet to be written.
The Russians raise important questions for the Band's project. They've always straddled the line between "East" and "West" - quotes because these are arbitrary historical construct based on real historical data points. And we aren't being pedantic - mistaking classifications for reality is something the Band is dealing with in regular posts. Classify more precisely. The Russian oil painting techniques are basic Western ones. Ditto the styles. But there's a unique sort of quality - a visual "something" that distinguishes them as a group. It's why we set them next to another tradition - the Americans - that is similar in a lot of ways. Putting the groups next to each other lets you see the differences that are hard to put into words.
Ivan Aivazovsky, Sailing off the Coast of the Crimea in the Moonlit Night, 1859
The sky is striking, but how he captures the sea in different conditions is almost unbelievable.
Gavriil Kondratenko, Vesuvius 1897
Checking in on the Russians. Here’s the popular Vesuvius as a faint bur menacing backdrop to a piercing blue sea.
It seems real and distant - like a dream that you could step into.
Ivan Aivazovski, Dante shows the artist the unusual clouds, 1883
[Note: a repost, but a great picture.]
Ivan Shishkin, Beech Forest in Switzerland, 1864
The light playing off the trees at different distances gives this one a depth of atmosphere.
Ivan Aivazovsky, Jesus Walks on Water, 1863
Sunday with the master of water. Technical mastery supports the meaning.
Jesus illuminates the translucent waves, showing us that the light of God is the logos in the world.
Alexei Savrasov, Pond at Dusk, 1879
Haven’t looked at the Russians for a while. Here’s a symphony of subtle evening colors.
Russian painting is unique.It doesn’t all look the same, but doesn’t look like anything else.
Ivan Aivazovsky, Fishermen at Sunrise, 19th century
Bright hazy morning with the master of water as the sun burns off the early mist.
The sea is his usual bright translucence, but the air and light steal the show here.
Ivan Shishkin, Twilight, 19th century
Russian painter with a gift for woodland scenes captures the colors & lighting of the setting sun.
Shishkin had a way of painting pictures that feel like you could step into them.
Julius Klever, Christ Walking on the Waters, 19th century
The fusion of sun & halo visualizes the Logos connecting God & creation.
Ivan Aivazovsky, Brig Mercury after a Victory over Two Turkish Ships, 1848
The master of water’s last take on a famous Russian brig.
The master of water’s last take on a famous Russian brig.
His clouds almost rival his light on the water as the Mercury rejoins the Russian fleet.
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