Hudson River School Visions

Book excerpt: Sanford Gifford (American, 1823-1880), a leading Hudson River School landscape painter and a founder of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, was so esteemed by the New York art world that, at his untimely death, the Museum mounted a show of his work-the first monographic exhibition accorded any artist-and published a Memorial Catalogue that, for nearly a century, remained the principal source on his oeuvre. Gifford's art, which was inspired by the work of Thomas Cole, the founder of the Hudson River School, and by that of British artist J.M.W. Turner, and enriched by his travels in Europe (from 1855 to 1857, and from 1868 to 1869), came to be called "air painting," for he made the ambient light of each scene-color saturated and atmospherically potent-the key to its expression. His approach to painting and his unique style gave rise to a highly distinctive body of work with enchanting and mesmerizing effect. This publication examines seventy paintings by the artist and includes comparative illustrations of related works by Gifford, his Hudson River School mentors and colleagues, and those painters, in addition to Cole and Turner, who exerted influence on his art, including Frederic Edwin Church and John F. Kensett. The essays discuss Gifford's place in the Hudson River School, his numerous Catskill Mountain subjects, his experiences and perceptions as a traveler both at home and abroad, and the variety of his patrons. -- Metropolitan Museum of Art website.