Our forthcoming advertisement in Olana’s 2013 Frederic E. Church Award Gala Journal

Hawthorne Fine Art is pleased to announce The Olana Partnership 2013 Frederic E. Church Award Gala, which will be held on Thursday, May 23 at the New York Public Library. The honorees at this year’s Gala are Elizabeth Broun, The Margaret and Terry Stent Director of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and Stephen Hannock, acclaimed contemporary landscape painter. The work of these two individuals has brought the study and appreciation of American art to great prominence and embodies the Gala’s celebration of the Extraordinary American Landscape.

Musical artist and art collector Sting, with his wife, Trudie Styler, and acclaimed artist, Christo, will present the awards to the honorees.

Elizabeth Broun is being honored for her significant influence in expanding an understanding of American art during her 30-year tenure with the Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM). During her tenure, the museum has developed a significant national education program, and has become a leader in distance learning, Web-based resources, and new media. As director during a $283 million renovation of the SAAM’s historic landmark building, she championed the creation of and secured funding for several innovative new public spaces, including the first art conservation facility that allows the public permanent behind-the-scenes views of the preservation work of museums, and the only visible art storage and study center in Washington, D.C. with thousands of artworks on public display.

Stephen Hannock is an important contemporary landscape painter inspired by the works and philosophies of the Hudson River School, whose work hangs in many of the country’s most important museums including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and the National Gallery of Art. In addition, Stephen’s work is in numerous private collections. Not only does his work often directly reference 19th century paintings and locales, but also important landscapes and issues of today, particularly environmental concerns.

Because of her commitment to building collections of American landscape painting and producing scholarly publications, Jennifer Krieger is among the members of The Olana Partnership’s Landscape/Viewshed Advisory Committee. The Olana Partnership supports the conservation, preservation, development and improvement of the Olana State Historic Site, which is open to the public throughout the year. Its goal is to inspire the public by preserving and interpreting Olana, and to create the most widely recognized artist’s home and studio in the world, vibrant with the activity of students, visitors and scholars.

We hope you will join us in honoring the work Elizabeth Broun and Stephen Hannock, and in celebrating the Extraordinary American Landscape. Please see below for further details and to RSVP.

Event: The Olana Partnership- Frederic E. Church Award Dinner

Date: Thursday, May 23, 2013

Location: New York Public Library, Celeste Bartos Forum – New York City
5th Avenue and 42nd Street

Time: 7pm Cocktails
8pm Dinner, Awards, and Live Auction

Tickets: Tickets can be purchased starting at $1,500. To purchase tickets contact Cailin Fitzgerald at (212) 921-9070 ext. 11 or email: olana@thejfmgroup.com

Attire: Black Tie

In addition, to view benefit auctions, please follow the link below:

http://olana.org/pdf/StephenHannockAuctionItemNiagara.pdf

Jennifer Krieger standing with His Excellency the Governor of Bermuda, The Hon. George Fergusson; Premier, The Hon. Craig Cannonier, JP MP; and Gary L. Phillips OBE JP

Mr. Gary L. Phillips, OBE JP; Mrs. Margaret Fergusson; Governor, The Hon. George Fergusson; Ms. Helen Clark; Mrs. Tricia Phillips; Minister, The Hon. Bob Richards

This exhibition, which runs through January 18, 2012, is only the second full-scale show of the artist’s work in three decades. Kept largely private by a sprawling family of artists and intellectuals, the paintings of Clark Voorhees have very rarely been exhibited in public. Beginning in 1919, Voorhees and a small group of fellow Old Lyme artists began to spend their winters in Bermuda, where the artist purchased a house that he named “Tranquility.” The lush, nuanced studies he produced there reflect Voorhees’s life-long interest in the natural sciences, as thoughtfully observed in Dr. Edward Harris’s review of the exhibition in the December 15^th edition of The Royal Gazette. Dr. Harris praised the work as being “not only of artistic value,” but also “of significance to the historian and archaeologist, and indeed the natural scientist, for the artist captured the nature of the place, but without any intention that an historic state was being embedded in ink and paint on his canvas.”

For this and other reasons, the exhibition is very much representative of the interests of the gallery and Jennifer Krieger, who is known for uncovering hidden treasures of American art and incorporating them into carefully curated exhibitions. Isles of Tranquility includes 20 paintings of Bermuda landscapes by Voorhees all of which have been kept in the hands of the family and are available for viewing and for sale for the first time.

Other paintings by the artist are on display in the collections of the Wadsworth Athenaeum Museum of Art, Yale University Art Gallery, the Florence Griswold Museum in Old Lyme, CT, and the Chicago Union League Club.

We hope you will be able to visit Isles of Tranquility at  74 East 79^th Street between Park and Madison Avenues before the close of the exhibition on January 18th. Additionally, please feel free to browse the online PDF version of the catalogue, or contact us to request a hard copy.

On Saturday, December 8, Hawthorne Fine Art held an opening event for Isles of Tranquility: Paintings of Bermuda by Clark Greenwood Voorhees, 1871–1933. Our latest exhibition features brilliant representations of the Bermuda islands completed by the artist during his annual winter visits, which began in 1919.

Works on view range from intimate nature studies, to grand views of vibrant blue ocean and sky. Voorhees was known for his dual interest in science and art, and expressed this fascination with nature and botany through careful study of the trees, atmosphere, and environment of Bermuda. His depictions of the abundant Bermuda cedar trees express the vitality of nature through the illusion of rustling movement amid the branches. However, the artist also captured a number of buildings in his paintings, including his own home and studio in Somerset, which he named “Tranquility.”

Isles of Tranquility has already caught the attention of both residents and frequent visitors of Bermuda. Dr. Edward Harris, Executive Director of the National Museum at Dockyard, Bermuda, attended the exhibition opening on Saturday and has written an illuminating article for his Heritage Matters series. “Voorhees’s Isles of Tranquility” thoughtfully discusses the artist’s island paintings in the context of the history of art, artists, and tourists in Bermuda.

Isles of Tranquility is accompanied by an illustrated catalogue, available in PDF form on the Hawthorne Fine Art website. The exhibition will be on view Tuesdays through Fridays, 10:00am to 5:00pm, until January 18, 2013.

Lauren Sansaricq, Winter Afternoon, View of Carter Notch, NH. Oil on canvas, 14 x 19 in.

This event featured one of Lauren’s hauntingly beautiful nocturnal scenes illuminated by a pulsing full moon, and demonstrated the process of drawing, underpainting, and the final glazing. She selected a nocturnal scene in order to show the clear transition from underpainting to a richer finished image once glazing is complete. After drawing out her composition, Lauren spent time building up the primarily monochromatic underpainting—often called the dead color stage. The choice of a nocturnal scene, according to Lauren, was successful in revealing the importance of determining the tonal values of the whole image in relation to the drawn arrangement. Lauren began painting concentric circles outward from the central full moon, deepening the color and warmth of the pigment as she progressed. Fr. Iain MacLellan, Director of the Chapel Art Center, noted that visitors were especially amazed by the quickness with which Lauren transformed pigment from her brush into naturalistic form, as if by magic! He stated that Lauren’s “apparent learnedness and deftness with pigments and brush” were especially impressive and exciting for viewers.

Lauren Sansaricq, View of Mt. Washington from the Saco River, 2012. Oil on artist’s board, 10 x 16 in.

Since the underpainting must dry before glazes can be applied, Lauren had prepared another panel ahead of time with the same composition in order to show visitors how to glaze a painting. As Lauren explained, glazing uses thin layers of transparent paint to enhance the colors and shadows of a painting in a way that creates richness but preserves the lightness or freshness of the paint.

This impressive demonstration provided an illuminating experience for visitors not only into the technical aspect of creating a painting and the extensive care and work that goes into each image, but also the intense emotional part of Lauren’s work. Fr. Iain mentioned that the demonstration revealed “the real purity of intent on the part of the artist. [Lauren] relayed in a quiet and forthright way… the fullness of the experiences she has had with the almost unsurpassable beauty of the brilliant moon at night.” One visitor’s question, which the artist found particularly inspiring, was in regard to the spiritual quality of her work. The visitor asked how Lauren’s technique enhanced this spiritual feeling. Lauren responded that her glazing technique and scumbling (glazing with a more opaque paint) would help call a viewer’s attention to one particular element of the painting. This element, as Lauren says, “should tell a story of the journey we are all on for enlightenment and ultimately the Truth.”

Lauren Sansaricq, View of Mt. Madison from the Androscoggin River, 2012. Oil on artist’s board, 7 ½ x 14 in.

Lauren’s technical prowess and reverence for nature as conveyed through painting reflect the ideals expressed by the nineteenth century American landscape painters of the Hudson River School. While the demonstration is especially significant for its illumination of Lauren’s own working process and personal connection to the subjects she depicts, it also reveals the important techniques, pigments, and types of brushes used by historic artists. This very special event, which so brilliantly supplemented the exhibition of her work, The Glimmer of Light, “became a living metaphor for how to enlighten others,” said Fr. Iain, and “how to bring light out of darkness with materials, methods, perception, and memory.”

Lauren Sansaricq, Autumn Afternoon. Oil on artist’s board, 8 x 12 in.

In addition to Lauren’s demonstration, the exhibition at Saint Anselm College was recently supplemented with a lecture by David Dearinger, Susan Morse Hilles Curator of Paintings & Sculpture at the Boston Athenaeum. Dr. Dearinger’s talk introduced the Hudson River School, focusing on the development of the art movement through the careers of three major artists—Thomas Cole, Asher B. Durand, and Frederic Church—all of whom found painting subjects and artistic inspiration in the Hudson River Valley and Catskill Mountains of New York State.

Lauren Sansaricq, View of the Mt. Washington Valley, 2012. Oil on artist’s board, 8 ¼ x 15 ¼ in.

The Glimmer of Light: Landscape Paintings by Lauren Sansaricq will be on view at the Alva de Mars Megan Chapel Art Center at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, NH, until December 6^th. We hope you will have an opportunity to visit the exhibition! To enjoy more of Lauren’s paintings, please view the PDF catalogue of the artist’s previous exhibition at Hawthorne Fine Art, Nature’s Poetry.

Lauren Sansaricq, Snow Scene in Jackson N.H., 2011. Oil on artist’s board, 6 1/4 x 4 in.

In 1919, Clark Voorhees visited Bermuda for the first time, accompanied by other artists from the Old Lyme Art Colony. He and his wife, Maud, eventually purchased a home in Somerset, which they called “Tranquility,” and returned to the islands every winter. Located in Sandy’s Parish, the western-most of nine Parishes in Bermuda, Somerset (and “Tranquility”) was within reach of numerous beaches and other sites. The Royal Navy Dockyard, painted by Voorhees, is located at the northern tip of Sandy’s Parish, while Church Bay is located in nearby Southampton Parish.

Looking Toward the Dockyard, Somerset (Click to enlarge)

Church Bay, (Click to enlarge)

Like in New England, Voorhees depicted examples of typical Bermudian architecture. Springfield Courtyard by Moonlight depicts a 1740s mansion in typical plantation architectural style. The white walls and roof made a perfect canvas on which Voorhees experimented with light and shadow.

Springfield Courtyard by Moonlight (Click to enlarge)

Having received Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Chemistry, Voorhees demonstrated a lifelong interest in science. After changing careers to become a full-time artist, he continued to take a scientific interest in the landscapes he painted, coming into direct contact with nature through avid bicycling. In Bermuda, Voorhees explored the islands on his “wheel” and produced images that captured the jewel-like colors of the location, the juxtaposition of land and sea, and the varieties of trees (cedar and papaya) that he encountered.

Somerset Parish—Islands with Cottage (Click to enlarge)

Cedar Trees at Whale Bay [located in Southampton Parish] (Click to enlarge)

Rock with Water (Click to enlarge)

Over the course of his career, Voorhees’s painting style developed from Barbizon-inspired Tonalism to Impressionism, following the course taken by the Lyme Art Colony. Voorhees continued to experiment with Tonalism and Impressionism using the brilliant atmosphere and variety of colors to further explore his already developed techniques.

Isles of Tranquility is accompanied by an illustrated catalogue, which includes an essay titled, “Impressions of Paradise: Clark Greenwood Voorhees in Bermuda,” and reproductions of the works in the exhibition. We look forward to sharing this catalogue with you, and hope you will join us at Hawthorne Fine Art to view the exhibition!

Lauren Sansaricq, Mt. Chocorua, 2012 (click to enlarge)

The Chapel Art Center has recently featured examples of American landscape painting, as well as local and emerging artists. A native of Columbia County, New York, Lauren Sansaricq (b.1990) trained with Thomas Locker (1937–2012), a celebrated landscape painter and children’s book author/illustrator, in the traditional manner of the Hudson River School. Sansaricq’s work captures a similar sense of wonder experienced by the nineteenth century landscape painters working primarily in New York’s Catskill Mountain region. As Jennifer Krieger explains, “Lauren is a tireless technician who can hone in on the most subtle details of nature within its grandest views. She demonstrates an artistic prowess and commitment to faithful design which is not only rare for her age but also uncommon for the age in which we live.” Like the first generation of Hudson River School painters, Sansaricq has also proven herself to be a true artist-explorer. She has broadened the scope of her work to include locations outside the Hudson Valley, including the White Mountains of New Hampshire and locations in France and Italy.

In conjunction with this special exhibition, numerous special events have been planned. David Dearinger, Ph.D., Susan Morse Hilles Curator of Paintings and Sculpture at The Boston Athenaeum, will present “The Hudson River School: An Introduction” on Thursday, November 8 at 4:00pm. This lecture will provide a scholar’s insight into the significance of America’s first indigenous art movement, offering an important supplement to Ms. Sansaricq’s meditative and technically rigorous paintings.

Additionally, Fr. MacLellan will be leading a director’s tour of the exhibition at 1:00pm on Saturday, October 20. On Thursday, October 25 at 4:00pm, Ms. Sansaricq will discuss the subject matter and technical practice that ties her work to historic American landscape painting, yet offers a fresh look at our landscape today. Lastly, a special music performance will feature American Romantic compositions performed by acclaimed pianist Alpin Hong on Friday, November 30 at 7:30pm.

Since the opening of Nature’s Poetry, held at Hawthorne Fine Art last winter, Lauren has completed her training at the Grand Central Academy in NYC. We’re excited for this next step in Lauren’s career and will be producing an exhibition catalogue for The Glimmer of Light illustrating her paintings. A PDF of the Nature’s Poetry catalogue is available on our website.

For further information about this exhibition and the related special events, please visit http://www.anselm.edu/chapelart.

Douglas Arthur Teed, Maple Sugar, 1883. Click to enlarge

Douglas Arthur Teed, Italian Landscape, 1917. Click to enlarge

Douglas Arthur Teed was born on February 21, 1860 in New Hartford, NY (near Utica) to Fidelia M. Rowe and Cyrus R. Teed. Growing up, Teed was surrounded by his father’s spiritual fervor. Cyrus Teed developed a following in New York, and eventually left his family to found a religious sect in Florida called Koreshan Unity. Although Douglas Teed never converted to Koreshanity like his father, these ideas of spirituality were reflected in his mystical and sometimes mysterious works, especially later in his career. Douglas Teed generally had an idealistic perception of the world, and he believed in the spirituality found in God-created nature. The artist thought paintings should be more than aesthetically pleasing; they should create an allegory for this spirituality.

Teed began painting as a young boy, and opened his first studio at age 14. His work always focused on a Romantic depiction of nature, stemming from the Hudson River School tradition that was so prevalent in New York State. When his mother died, Teed went to live in Binghamton, New York, where he built a studio (1889). Teed’s early technique living in upstate New York focused on delicate, faithful representations of nature based on the artist’s own close observation of his subjects. However, Teed also spent time in the studio of George Inness, most likely in the early 1880s. Inness was a convert to the Barbizon movement that originated in France in and near Fontainebleau, and focused heavily on Swedenborgian spirituality as reflected in the peace and harmony of nature. HFA’s Homeward Bound from 1865 is a striking example of Inness’s early transition to Tonalism.

George Inness, Homeward Bound, 1865. Click to enlarge

After working with George Inness and experiencing Inness’s transition to American Barbizon painting, Teed painted Maple Sugar (1883). This charming image of a forest interior that nearly qualifies as genre painting captures Teed’s close observation of nature in the texture of the tree bark and the hazy atmosphere of the snowy forest on a dreary winter day. However, the thick impasto that appears in the tree trunks and in the dash of white snow on the roof of the cabin reveals the influence of Inness’s more rapid paint application in the Tonalist manner. Despite this move toward a Tonalist manner of painting, Teed still infuses this composition with his Romantic sensibility and reverence for nature. The monumental size of the trees dwarfs the figures and cabin, sheltering them in a cathedral-like embrace, while the subject of extracting resources from the environment alludes to a harmony between man and nature.

In 1890, Douglas Teed traveled to Italy for further study. The artist attempted classical depictions of the Roman Compagna, but also conveyed his Romantic sensibility through Tonalist depictions of the Italian landscape. While in Europe, Teed attended the Universal Expositions in both Paris (1891) and Munich (1892) where he would have viewed contemporary European paintings, and paintings by Americans living in Europe. After this, Teed eventually began incorporating Impressionist techniques into his manner of painting. One critic described Teed’s paintings in 1905: “Mr. Teed’s landscapes are said to recall the soft effects of Corot, though his style is so original that it would hardly be correct to speak of any other artist. His genre work is superb, and whether he finds inspiration in the warm tones of Southern Europe or the cooler tints of the more temperate zones, his work displays the same qualities of breadth and individuality.”[1]

In 1897, Teed married Ms. George E. C. Earle and moved to Hallstead, PA, where he built a studio (referred to by neighbors as “Teed’s Castle”) overlooking the Susquehanna River. Between 1907 and 1911 Douglas and George Teed visited Egypt, Morocco, India, and Algeria, where the artist developed his interest in Orientalism. Teed had already created Orientalist works based on reproductions of paintings by European Orientalists, but after this trip he began creating his own original Orientalist paintings. These paintings combine this Romantic and exotic perception of Africa and the Near East with Impressionist painting techniques, since Teed had never trained in the academic painting style.

For the remainder of his career, Teed continued to experiment with different painting styles, always infusing his subjects with a sense of mysticism. In 1917, the year Italian Landscape was painted, George Earl Teed died, resulting in Douglas Teed’s relocation to Detroit. Despite his personal loss, Teed was financially successful in Detroit, selling his paintings for high prices to wealthy industrialists. His buyers preferred established art forms like Tonalism and Impressionism, manners in which Teed continued to work. Italian Landscape is an example of the Barbizon-inspired Italian landscapes Teed began painting after his trip to Italy in 1890, yet it is dated much later. Teed managed to balance experimental and highly mystical paintings with more widely accepted manners throughout the changing artistic movements in the early twentieth century. Italian Landscape, therefore, is a later example of Teed’s devotion to a Romantic manner of painting that captured a divine sense of harmony in nature. In this image, the sun hangs low over the horizon line, bathing the landscape in a glowing light and silhouetting the distant Italian architecture. A lone figure stands in the middle ground taking in the scene while simultaneously becoming a part of nature to the painting’s viewer.

Teed continued to paint subjects related to his foreign travels throughout his career, leading one writer to ask the artist if he found it difficult to remember the details. Teed responded, “On the contrary, I have a much better perspective now of what I saw there. Also, as the superfluous details leave my memory, the really important ones stand out all the more clearly.”[2] Interestingly, Thomas Cole (1801-1848), the founder of the Hudson River School of landscape painting, made a similar argument almost a century earlier. Cole stated, “…I never succeed in painting scenes, however beautiful, immediately on returning from them. I must wait for time to draw a veil over the common details, the unessential parts, which shall leave the great features, whether the beautiful or the sublime dominant in the mind.”[3] These similar attitudes to the profound effects of nature and subject matter connect Douglas Teed’s constantly developing style with the foundation of American Romanticism as put forward by Thomas Cole and the first generation of Hudson River School artists.

Julius Herman Kummer, May Day, 1859

Kummer’s painting was completed the same year the popular illustrator and painter Winslow Homer (1836–1910) published his engraving May Day in the Country in Harper’s Weekly. There are similarities in the two images, including the figural groupings of children, the wooded scenery, and the popular subject matter. However, Kummer heightens the drama and Romanticism in his composition through the monumental scale of the trees and deep recession of the primary subject–the Maypole.

Winslow Homer, May-Day in the Country, Harper’s Weekly, April 30, 1859

May Day was a popular spring celebration that originated in pagan traditions in Northern Europe and was brought to America by early European settlers. May Day festivities traditionally took place in the woods and included music, wine, bonfires, outdoor plays, horse races, dancing around a Maypole adorned with ribbons and garlands, and filling baskets with flowers to be left on the doorsteps of neighbors.

Among the earliest and most notorious May Day celebrations in America occurred in 1627 in Massachusetts, and was chronicled in the short story “The Maypole of Merrymount,” by Nathanial Hawthorne, for whom Hawthorne Fine Art is named. Legend has it that the Anglican Thomas Morton, who had a reputation as a bon vivant, erected a Maypole in his plantation at Merry Mount on the coast of Massachusetts, initiating boisterous May Day celebrations. Hawthorne begins his story: “Bright were the days at Merry Mount, when the Maypole was the banner staff of that gay colony! They who reared it, should their banner be triumphant, were to pour sunshine over New England’s rugged hills, and scatter flower seeds throughout the soil. Jollity and gloom were contending for an empire. Midsummer eve had come, bringing deep verdure to the forest, and roses in her lap, of a more vivid hue than the tender buds of Spring.” The story describes the incident when the Puritan John Endicott disrupts a Maypole dance, accusing the celebration of idolatry and cutting down the Merry Mount Maypole. “It groaned with a dismal sound; it showered leaves and rosebuds upon the remorseless enthusiast; and finally, with all its green boughs and ribbons and flowers, symbolic of departed pleasures, down fell the banner staff of Merry Mount. As it sank, tradition says, the evening sky grew darker, and the woods threw forth a more sombre shadow.” Governor Bradford, who, like the Plymouth Pilgrims and the Boston Puritans, believed May Day celebrations amounted to idolatry, sought a court order from England to ban the holiday and eventually had Morton deported. May Day continued to be commemorated in America despite the victory of the Puritans at Merry Mount.

Kummer’s depiction of the May Day celebration during his brief residency in Boston is a testament not only to his landscape training at the Dresden Academy, an important center of the Romantic movement in Europe, but also to the survival in America of this traditional celebration that rejoices in nature’s changing seasons and the renewal of springtime.

This beautifully illustrated catalogue presents highlights from HFA’s inventory, thoughtfully paired with segments of historic and contemporary writing. Paintings include images of the American West, tranquil winter scenes, and a fiery sunset painted by contemporary artist Lauren Sansaricq. The accompanying prose varies from beautifully descriptive and meditative passages, to excerpts that raise issues of environmental conservation. Jennifer Krieger, Managing Partner of Hawthorne Fine Art, writes in her introduction, “While we can still behold and appreciate the sites and vistas that attracted artists to paint our native scenery over a hundred years ago, we must strengthen our dedication to and our efforts in pre­serving them.”

Two recent acquisitions included in this catalogue are In the Arctic by William Bradford (1823­­–1892) and Summer Idyll in the Hudson Valley by William Hart (1823–1894). Bradford, who grew up on the Massachusetts coast during the height of the New Bedford whaling industry, consistently showed interest in and talent for depicting whaleships. After befriending Frederic Church (1826–1900), who is known for his adventurous expeditions to South American and the Arctic, Bradford was inspired to travel. He sailed for Labrador for the first time in 1861, and continued to return throughout the 1860s. However, the artist’s most epic voyage occurred in 1869 when funding from New York art collector and banker LeGrand Lockwood allowed Bradford to travel further into the Arctic. Traveling a total of 5000 miles during this three-month journey, Bradford sketched icebergs, glaciers, and polar bears, and completed his travelogue, The Arctic Region, published in 1873. In the Arctic (1875), which typifies the Romantic preoccupation with exploring the outer limits of civilization, is an important example of the crystalline Arctic vistas that Bradford continued to produce during the mid-1870s to illustrate his 1869 expedition. This image is paired with an exciting description of Frederic Church’s arctic expedition written by Reverend Louis Legrand Noble, who is best known for his biography of Hudson River School painter Thomas Cole (1801–1848).

William Bradford, In the Arctic

William Hart’s Summer Idyll in the Hudson Valley (1849) is a rare and very early example of the finely detailed, bucolic American landscapes for which the artist was best known. Completed while the artist was still living in Albany, NY, this painting is one of few extant works from the period prior to Hart’s move to New York City in 1853. This pastoral vision of America as a New Eden was popularized by the American Art Union, which promoted and disseminated works by young American landscape painters such as Hart, John F. Kensett, Frederic E. Church, and Jasper F. Cropsey in the 1840s and early 1850s. The Italianate building that appears nestled within a group of trees at the water’s edge is typical of the “Tuscan” villas that replaced the Federal style mansions of the previous era. Leading the Romantic architectural movement were landscape architects Andrew Jackson Downing and Alexander Jackson Davis. Downing and Davis called for “natural” architecture following English Gothic and Italian Renaissance models, which strived for harmonious integration within the landscape, unlike box-shaped Federal houses. Hart’s painting appears alongside a segment of Thomas Cole’s “Essay on American Scenery” (1836), in which Cole calls for deeper attention to the aesthetics of scenery amid the Edenic paradise of America.

William Hart, Summer Idyll in the Hudson Valley

To view more exciting paintings and their accompanying prose, you may view Summer Reading in its entirety on the Hawthorne Fine Art website. The catalogue is also available in hard copy and may be requested on our catalogue page.