The second collection of the Band's SocialGalactic painting posts. It consists of around half of them from a one month period about six months ago. Since we are going through a backlog, there will be a loose chronological arrangement to these, further broken down into some kind of groupings. Chronological meaning when we posted them, not when they were painted. This post will cover the Americans and Russians from that period - the other one will do the Europeans and contemporary artists of all kinds. It's not ideal, but the original posts are done daily without any thematic continuity beyond being beautiful, moving, or relevant to cultural revival. The guiding thread is our interests, and lines of inquiry. So keeping a loose chronology but organizing it into the rough groups we're looking into seems a good compromise.
For the other painting posts, see the Collections of Art Posts page above or click this link.
Frederic Edwin Church, El Rio de Luz (The River of Light), 1877
This post starts with the Hudson River School - the first American school of painting that was comparable in technical quality and beauty to the European masters. Then some other 19th-century Americans, and finally some Russians from the same time period. The Russians have been a revelation, and it's fascinating to compare approaches to the wonders of nature. No comment as to whether or not they're colluding.
The Hudson River School
Combine the awe at the power of nature found in Romanticism (especially the Dusseldorf School) with the sublime American landscape. The individual styles differ, but all use landscape painting to combine natural beauty and more metaphysical ideas. The founder was Thomas Cole, with his friend Asher Durand as the other early leader. But the several generations of painters followed - click for a partial list with the main names. The name came from the Hudson River Valley - Cole and the others started painting in that area - including the Catskills, Adirondacks, and the White Mountains. Later artists spread out - some of the most spectacular works are from the American West and South America.
For more information, here's Infogalactic and Britannica. And here's a link to hiking Hudson River School sites. Turns out that their legacy helped preservation efforts. Politics are downstream from culture. See why you can't have your art taken up with nihilistic postmodern garbage?
Thomas Cole, View of the Round-Top in the Catskill Mountains (Sunny Morning on the Hudson), 1827
Cole is one of the greatest American landscape painters. His New York & New England scenes have a mystical beauty.
He was also a devout Christian.
Thomas Cole, A Snow Squall, 1825
Here’s another Cole. He was really good at capturing dramatic atmospheric effects.
Here he’s using the shiny texture of oil paint to simulate snowy storm clouds. This is high level technique.
Thomas Cole, Expulsion from the Garden of Eden, 1828
Cole’s Christian subjects rely on his dramatic landscape style. He’s not going for “realism” as much as power and significance.
Here he captures the spiritual magnitude of the Fall.
Thomas Cole, The Voyage of Life: Childhood, 1842
Cole’s series combines sublime landscape & a Christian allegory of life.
The angel leading from darkness to a detailed immediate world & bright future capture the Logos of childhood.
Thomas Cole, The Voyage of Life: Youth, 1842
#2 in the series is the sublime optimism of youth. The angel waves the young man into a bright future where anything is possible. Even castles in the sky.
The fantastic tone fits perfectly.
Thomas Cole, The Voyage of Life: Manhood, 1842
Part 3: Youthful dreams give way to the tribulations & uncertainties of reality.
Be of good faith though. God is not always visible, but He is always there. Especially when it looks terrible.
Thomas Cole, The Voyage of Life: Old Age, 1842
Part 4. At the end, everything - trials & dreams - fades to calm, quiet stillness.
The angel is back, leading the man of faith to his final reward. I love how the others welcome him home.
Thomas Cole, The Savage State, 1834
Cole’s Course of Empire series traces the rise & fall of imperial civilization.
It starts with hunter-gatherers. The sublime landscape intimidates, but the rising sun promises a bright future.
Thomas Cole, The Arcadian or Pastoral State, 1834
The 2nd in the Course of Empire is early settlement - agriculture, religion, sociability.
Simplicity & space means homogeneity & cooperation, not coercion.
They all know each other.
Thomas Cole, The Consummation, 1836
The Course of Empire pt. 3 - prosperity begets growth to imperial power.
Populations spike, society stratifies, elites turn globalist, and the people forget where they came from.
Populations spike, society stratifies, elites turn globalist, and the people forget where they came from.
But look… stuff!
Thomas Cole, Destruction, 1836
No. 4 in the Course of Empire series: the inevitable result of imperial growth beyond sustainability.
And that which can’t be sustained, won’t be.
Makes you think about the durability of modern globalism.
Thomas Cole, Desolation, 1836
Fifth and last of The Course of Empire. The sun sets as materialism & violence gives way to ruins and nature.
A new cycle begins. Eventually they’ll look on the ruins and think how superior they are.
Asher Brown Durand, The First Harvest in the Wilderness, 1855
Hudson River School picture that fits recent posts on self-reliance.
It’s subtle, but the light shines on the fruits of his labors like a blessing.
Asher Brown Durand, Sunday Morning, 1860
Airy Sunday morning from an American landscape pioneer.
It’s framed to show land & people in harmony, with the church symbolically placed at the end of the road.
Frederic Edwin Church, Morning in the Tropics, 1858
An American master of landscape and light - one of the best ever - for those sick of winter.
Two trips to Central America exposed him to tropical lighting. You can feel the heat haze.
To clarify: Church is best known as a member of the Hudson River School and pioneer of the offshoot of Romanticism called the American Sublime. He applied these techniques to the conditions he saw in the tropics.
The results are unique.
Frederic Edwin Church, El Rio de Luz (The River of Light), 1877
Another break from winter, this one from a trip to S.A. He traveled a lot.
Contrasting haze & clarity makes it more real. The hint of rose in the silvery light more magical.
Albert Bierstadt, Valley of the Yosemite, 1864
Good morning SG!
The effect comes from layering: Light ground, dark for details, golden glaze for the misty glow. Sharp & luminous at the same time.
Actually doing it is another matter…
Frederic Edwin Church, Rainy Season in the Tropics, 1866
Hudson River School painter’s impression of Jamaica combined detailed realism & fantasy.
It’s thought to represent optimism - in his personal life, & for the end of the Civil War.
Sanford Robinson Gifford, Twilight in the Adirondacks, 19th century
Hudson River School painter of subtle light.
The reduced color range simulates vision in low lighting & the golden haze makes a calm scene real & magical art once.
Frederic Edwin Church, Twilight in the Wilderness, 1860
Light, clouds, water, detail - real & fantastic at the same time.
Sanford Gifford, A Gorge in the Mountains (Kauterskill Clove), 1862
Beautiful luminous scene for a Monday morning.
The morning sun haze adds realism and depth & the points of light glittering on the water draw your eye in.
Good excuse for a close-up.
You can see how he creates depth by contrasting dark sharp foreground shapes & lighter blurry distance.
Hudson River School Painters were really good.
Jasper Francis Cropsey, Starrucca Viaduct, PA, 1865
We could have done - and will do - better.
Albert Bierstadt, Mount Corcoran, 1877
The foreground is crystal clear & the distant light-filled airy mountains are breathtaking. This isn’t unusual for him.
Frederic Edwin Church, Morning, Looking East Over the Hudson Valley from the Catskill Mountains, 1848
Brilliant morning picture with golden sun that gleams off the clouds.
The sky is textured so the clouds look 3d.
Albert Bierstadt, Light in the Forest, 19th century
Oil painters apply paint in layers. Bierstadt uses a top layer of bright color for this luminous effect.
Framing with dark elements - called repouissoir - makes it feel more intimate.
John Frederick Kensett, Lake George, 1869
Peaceful lake view for chaotic times.
Light & clouds subtly create airy distance - you don’t see how skillful it is on first glance. Same with the reflections in the water.
Worthington Whittredge, The Trout Pool, 1870
This American painter gets the subtle shifts & dappled sunlight through the trees and on the water.
Other Americans
The Hudson River School was very influential, but there were other artists in America as well. These painters give us glimpses at the past.
The Hudson River School was very influential, but there were other artists in America as well. These painters give us glimpses at the past.
Edward Henry Potthast, The Village Carpenter, 1898
A bit of Americana to end the modern culture ranting… for now.
When everything is made by someone, skilled accomplishment isn’t a “mystery”. It’s human nature.
Enoch Wood Perry, Talking It Over, 1872
If it matters, you have to protect it.
Enoch Perry, The Clock Doctor 1871
Modernity attacks essential cross-generational bonds. You can work around, but Boomer grandparents don’t help.
Modernity attacks essential cross-generational bonds. You can work around, but Boomer grandparents don’t help.
I’m so sick of fake forward/backward binaries. Try both. Roots let a tree reach the sky.
George Inness, Clearing Up, 1860
Nice landscape with a clearing sky.
Note the alignment of the man & church in the middle. Then how the bridge forms a triangle across the river.
Lives of work & faith link across the divide.
Homer Dodge Martin, Saranac Lake (Morning), 19th century
American painter does a good job with delicate morning light.Landscapes are appealing because natural beauty is on a longer timeframe. Morning light will outlast us.
Russians
The Russian painters are different but parallel in ways to the Americans. They were also shaped by the vast harshness and shocking beauty of their home - their connections between people and place are profound. Their technical skill also rivals the best of Europe. But their style is rougher, more raw. It's easy to see the reflections of the hardships of Russian history. Definitely when compared to the doe-eyed optimism of the Americans. But this also gives them incredible texture. Russian painters seem to have a knack for making you appreciate how things feel.
We were on a Aivazovsky-Klever kick. Easy to see why. But Shishkin may be the most gifted.
We were on a Aivazovsky-Klever kick. Easy to see why. But Shishkin may be the most gifted.
Julius Klever, Returning Home at Sunset, 1902
Old pictures remind us that many things we are fighting for aren’t “radical” or “new”.
They were common sense until satanic globalists of many kinds jacked a centralized fake media world.
Yuli Yulevich Klever, Horseman in a Sleeping Village, 1913
An Estonian-born master of Romantic-tinged winter scenes who who worked in Russia. His lighting & texture makes scenes real and fantastic at once.
You can feel the liquid cold.
Ivan Aivazovsky, Ship in the Stormy Sea, 1887
Light highlights make it 3D
Ivan Aivasovsky, Between the Waves, 1898
Aivasovsky is to the painting the sea what Grimshaw is to moonlight and twilight. The texture and coldness is amazing.
Similar technique: light ground under darker hues with light highlights.
Ivan Shishkin, Morning in a Pine Forest, 1889
There seems to be a lot of bears about.
Ivan Aivazovsky, Winter Landscape, 1876
Russian painter known for unreal seascapes, but this landscape is a masterpiece of texture & atmosphere.
It’s impressionistic with a limited color scheme, but seems more detailed.
Ivan Aivazovsky, Tempest, 19th century
Aivazovsky’s mastery of the sea is uncanny. The luminous waves and stormy atmosphere bring beauty to the dangerous power of nature.
It’s a reminder that we’re also overdue for a beautiful storm…
Julius Klever, Sunset, 1904
A small entry on their satanic list, but still a crime.
Julius Klever, A Winter Day in the Forest, 19th century
The light and seasonal atmosphere is just right
Vladimir Makovsky, Village School, 1883
“School” started as people you knew teaching some local kids. Less ideal than homeschooling perhaps, but another species from today’s dehumanization.
Viktor Vasnetsov, Girl Gathering Flowers in the Woods, 1876
Russian painting captures universals about natural beauty & organic culture.
Human-scale life where we look after business locally are healthy. It’s centralization that’s toxic.
Ivan Shishkin, Winter, 1890
A genre scene breaks from the usual habit of posting something striking, so here’s a Russian picture that brilliantly captures the texture, atmosphere, & feel of a snowy forest.
It’s Narniaesque.
Lev Kamenev, Moonlit Night on the River, 1870s
Just started looking at Russian painters.
Not surprising to see excellent landscapes, but their best stuff has a haunting Romantic quality.
I despise communism in all its metastases.
Ivan Aivazovsky, The Creation of the World, 1864
There are only two sides - distinctions or dissolution.
Julius Klever, Hut on a Winter's Evening, 1904
Russian painter whose work is hard to classify. Incredible winter atmospheres & intense lighting with a rough loose technique.
Best just appreciate his bond with the land.
Ivan Aivazovsky, American Shipping off the Rock of Gibraltar, 1873
A less violent marine scene by the master of water, with fantastic color.
The low golden sunlight off the turquoise water is a striking effect.
Konstantin Yakovlevich Kryzhitsky, Landscape, 19th century
Russian painters show a deep connection to the land. Not surprising given their vast territory & rugged climate.
Art is how nations & cultures express themselves.
Thank you. Love your blog and always appreciate you sharing your wealth of knowledge.
ReplyDeleteGood to see you.
ReplyDeleteThe more we look into this, the more we want to.
Good Stuff. You could teach the history of Western art with Logos to home schoolers.
ReplyDeleteThat's something we'd like to do. It's two stage - need a suitable package, but also need awareness. Think how few people are aware this stuff even exists, let alone the importance of it. Right now we're trying like crazy to do what 60s retards used to call consciousness raising.
ReplyDeleteThen everything can follow...