American landscape painting of the 1800s
How painters like Cole, Church, Bierstadt and Homer used the land to tell big stories.
In the 1800s, landscape painting became one of the main ways Americans pictured their country. Painters travelled to wild places, made sketches and then returned to their studios to produce large canvases. Several of those canvases are on this site.
Thomas Cole and the wilderness
Thomas Cole, born in England, published an Essay on American Scenery in 1836 in which he wrote that we are still in Eden. His View of Schroon Mountain, painted in 1838, shows the Adirondacks after a storm in autumn colour. The Cleveland Museum of Art says he sketched it in early summer and gave it autumn colours in the studio, probably for national pride, since he thought the American autumn forest surpassed any other.
Church and the big picture
Frederic Church painted Twilight in the Wilderness in 1860, from sketches made near Mount Katahdin in Maine. He used his skill and a sense of showmanship to win a wide audience. The museum suggests that, painted on the eve of the Civil War, the blazing sunset can be seen as a symbol of the conflict that was coming.
Bierstadt and the West
Albert Bierstadt visited Yosemite Valley in 1863 and later made many paintings from his sketches. His views thrilled audiences on the East Coast and helped encourage the movement to protect natural wonders. Yosemite was set aside as public property in 1864 and became a national park in 1890. Like Cole, he included Indigenous people in the foreground, a reminder that the land was not empty.
Winslow Homer and the sea
Winslow Homer turned from the wilderness to the sea. Early Morning After a Storm at Sea, painted between 1900 and 1903, shows the surf at Prouts Neck, Maine. Homer called it the best picture of the sea he had painted, and worked on it in four sessions over two years.
People as well as places
Not every American painter of the time painted scenery. Thomas Eakins painted rowers on the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia, and George Bellows painted a boxing match in a New York club. These are also landscapes in a sense, since they show how people use particular places. Together the works show how American painters moved from grand views of untouched land toward scenes of work, sport and city life.
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Written with AI assistance and checked against museum records and standard references. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.