Movement · 1825–1880

Hudson River School

Luminous American landscape: glowing skies over deep green wilderness, painted with a near-theatrical sense of light.

Across 13 works, the colors are mostly brown (52%), gray (14%) and white (11%). On average the canvases are light, moderately saturated and warm. Signature colors, used far more here than across the collection: pale muted azure blue, dark rich brown, ivory, silver and olive.

Color print

The swatches covering most of these canvases, averaged over every work, dark to light.

• MG 206 silver 5.6% of canvas
• MG 219 bistre 4.4% of canvas
• MG 212 pale grey 4.2% of canvas
• MG 175 stone 4.0% of canvas
• MG 194 dark golden olive 3.9% of canvas
• MG 177 dark taupe 3.6% of canvas
• MG 200 ivory 3.6% of canvas
• MG 176 taupe 3.3% of canvas
• MG 213 light grey 3.1% of canvas
• MG 174 warm grey 3.1% of canvas
• MG 033 light amber 3.0% of canvas
• MG 215 grey 2.5% of canvas
• MG 214 pewter 2.5% of canvas
• MG 160 dark rich brown 2.5% of canvas
• MG 195 dark olive 2.4% of canvas
• MG 222 charcoal 2.4% of canvas

Measurements

Lightness

0.57

Contrast

0.59

Vividness

0.040

Warmth

+0.89

Complexity

105 cells

Hue range

0.39

Focus

0.09

Artists

• Thomas Cole 1801–1848
• Sanford Robinson Gifford 1823–1880
• Frederic Edwin Church 1826–1900
• Albert Bierstadt 1830–1902

Works

• Lake with Dead Trees (Catskill), 1825
• The Titan's Goblet, 1833
• The Oxbow, 1836
• The Architect's Dream, 1840
• Niagara, 1857
• Heart of the Andes, 1859
• Wilderness, 1860
• The Icebergs, 1861
• A Gorge in the Mountains (Kauterskill Clove), 1862
• The Rocky Mountains, Lander's Peak, 1863
• Looking Down Yosemite Valley, California, 1865
• Tivoli, 1870
• The Last of the Buffalo, 1888