The Hudson River School and the wilderness
American nature became the great subject: wilderness, mountains and rivers painted as the promise of a new land.
In the first half of the 19th century, American painters turned to the landscape. Europe had cathedrals and ruins, but America had the wilderness. Thomas Cole, who had emigrated from England, began in the 1820s to paint the Catskill Mountains and the Hudson River Valley in New York State. He gained many followers, and the group later became known as the Hudson River School.
The paintings often show a majestic nature bathed in golden light, with tiny figures or none at all. The landscape was not merely beautiful. It could express religious and patriotic feelings: nature was seen as God's handiwork and as a sign that America had a special destiny. At the same time, the wilderness was already disappearing to logging, railways and cities.
The next generation, with Frederic Edwin Church and Albert Bierstadt, produced enormous panoramic views of the Andes, Niagara Falls and the Rocky Mountains. Their canvases were shown as attractions and drew large crowds who paid for admission. Alongside the landscapists, George Caleb Bingham painted life along the Missouri River and George Catlin the Indigenous peoples of the Plains.